Grosse Pointe Park — School’s out for summer, but that doesn’t mean learning stops at St. Ambrose Parish in Grosse Pointe Park.

Every summer, the parish hosts Vacation Bible School, a free, summer program in which children from the parish and surrounding neighborhood can learn about science and music while completing arts and craft projects and learning about God’s love.

During the last day of classes June 26, the lessons were focused on the environment, complementing Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Laudato Si’ on being stewards of the Earth.

“We are focusing more on the environment today,” said Betty Haley, St. Ambrose director of religious education. “We do a different experiment every day. It’s a free program, so all can attend. We work in cooperation with the surrounding community; this is our part of the New Evangelization effort.”

The lessons start at 9:30 a.m. with an opening session, which includes a prayer and an experiment. Then the children break off into different groups for a series of sessions, including music, a group arts project, Bible exploration and everybody’s favorite, snack time.



“I have three kids, and they love coming here,” said Kelly Woolums, director of religious education at St. Philomena Parish in Detroit. “It’s nice for them to gather with their Catholic peers and learn about God’s message. This gets them out of the house and doing all sorts of experiments. They are moving constantly all day long, so it doesn’t feel like school.”

Each of the sessions were led by volunteers from surrounding Catholic high schools. The 15 group leaders served as supervisors, role models and playmates for the children as they worked their way through the day’s schedule.

Keeping the environment relaxed and teaching lessons through games is what the children enjoyed.

“We get to make crafts and it’s a lot more fun than normal school,” said Myla Garceau. “I get to color a lot and do the arts and crafts projects. I tell my friends how much fun the school is, because it’s not like normal school.”

Besides the lessons and activities, others enjoyed spending summer with their friends and making memories.

“I like the games, especially kickball,” said Noah Rhodes. “We learn about Jesus, and it’s a shorter day than school. But you get to do more games with the learning, and you get to spend the day with friends.”