New VBC Director

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DiZent

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I have been working on getting VBC re-started at my parish for some time. I submitted a proposal in July & got the go ahead for 2013. I set up an information & volunteer sign up table at the monthly fellowship & have a core group of volunteers, Someone from K of C approached me and asked how they could help. They purchased the Growing With the Saints program for the parish. I received the materials for All Aboard the Vatican Express yesterday from the DRE. I love it. I will have another volunteer table on Jan 20, and also set up some organization/planning meetings.

Growing With the Saints is all Catholic, only Catholic VBC, not a “Catholic version” of a Protestant program.
 
Congratulations!
Now what does VBS stand for? I don’t honestly know. Sorry.
That said Congratus if it’s all Catholic I’m all for it!:)))
Mary:
Newbie

Maybe Vacation Bible School? That’s all I could think of 🙂
 
VBC = Vacation Bible Camp. Growing With the Saints calls theirs Catholic Kidz Camp
 
Our parish only did VBS for about 5 years. There is interest in starting it up again. I am not sure why everyone is so intent on doing a protestant bible school, even though I have pointed out over and over there are truly Catholic programs out there.

Good luck! and Way to go!
 
The Bible IS a Catholic book, so the concept of having a summer program based on the Bible & the Catechism is sound. I got involved when my grandchildren were old enough to attend. The “generic” programs are slick & well marketed. They are promoted as “easy VBS” & “Totally Catholic”; however, the Catholic content is just an add-on. I did a lot of research before choosing a program. Growing With The Saints was my #1 choice.
 
The dates are reserved - July 29 - Aug 2, and we had our first volunteer committee meeting yesterday. We have about 15 solid volunteers and several who can donate 1 day of their time to help, plus I will be talking to the youth groups several times between now & July. Registration was at $20/child, with optional extras at additional cost, and capped registration at 60 campers. We hope to get more volunteers as the registrations come in. I have no talent for decorations, so I am hoping to get some talented teens or adults to do this part.

Growing With The Saints (Vatican Express) includes both a Eucharistic Adoration session for Grades 1/2 - 5/6, and a closing Mass on Day 5 (Friday Aug 2). One of the problems is the music - the program provides lots of children;s contemporary Catholic songs, written & performed by Catholic artists. I love them, but our pastor will not. I need some suggestions for more traditional children’s hymns that are easy to learn & sing at Mass.
 
Our Vacation Bible Camp (All Aboard the Vatican Express) is 7 weeks away at my parish. I set a deadline for June 15 or 50 campers, whichever came first. Right now, we have about 25 registered, but I expect many to come in this week. I have followed the schedule & suggestions in the kit from Growing with the Saints. I had an information/volunteer sign up table at almost every fellowship Sunday, & we set up a “giving tree” at the back entrance of the church for parishioners to support the effort by donating craft supplies & snack items, paper goods, etc. Anything donated will offset the cost of supplies we need to purchase & keep the registration fee low. (we are charging $20/child, & extras like t-shirts, music CD, etc. are optional).

This is the biggest youth event I have led. I did a few large group activities years ago as a Girl Scout leader, but they were 1-day events, while this is a 5 day event. I am getting great support from the DRE & the youth minister & the pastor. Right now, I am still fine-tuning the plans with my team.
 
More praise for Growing With the Saints. growingwiththesaints.com/aboutvbs4.html Whoever came up with the rotation schedule they have for their program was a genius. I tinkered with several rotation setups, but the one they suggest worked out the best. It allowed for double use of space & two adult leaders for every station. The Faith lesson has an adult leader for each age group & shares space with one of the activity stations (Bible, Craft, Music, Game or Snack). All age groups have the Faith station as session 1, then the adult leader walks the children through the rest of the stations. The Activity Leader assists the Faith Leader for session 1, then the Faith leader assists the Activity Leaders for session 2, 3, 4, etc. This works for 2-5 groups of children, with or without youth helpers. I had initially thought to combine the Faith stations into one & work it into rotation with the other stations, but that setup relied more heavily on youth assistants & required an extra room.

We had a volunteer team meeting last night & registration is officially closed. We have about 30 kids registered. I really thought we would get more; possible reasons are that we have not held it for 3 years at my parish, we are holding it in the daytime & later in the summer (end of July), and we set an early deadline for registrations. (if anyone contacts me before June 30, I can make an exception & next year, I can make the deadline 30 days before the event instead of 6 weeks before) It is not for lack of volunteers; I have 20 adult volunteers & 8+ youth volunteers. With 30 kids we can provide quality rather than quantity. There will be 3 groups with 9-12 kids in each group.
 
During the week of July 29 – Aug 2, the parish Hall was transformed into St. Peter’s Square. Children our parish & the surrounding area boarded the Vatican Express bus for 5 days of sensational skits, exciting Bible stories, creative crafts, fun activities & amazing music. The children learned about St. Peter, our first Pope, St. Jerome, who translated the Bible into one language, and the treasures of our Catholic Faith.

This was my first experience as Director, and the suggested timeline provided by Growing With the Saints helped to keep it all manageable. Various organizations within the Parish offered support, including the Knights of Columbus. We set up a Giving Tree at the back of the church, with picture tags for the craft & snack items & a list of supplies needed to make each on the back. I was overwhelmed at the generosity of the parishioners who donated supplies.

We had 34 children age PK/4 - Grade 5, 18 adult volunteers & 9 youth volunteers. 6th grade had the the option to be youth assistants. We adapted the rotation schedule for 3 groups, rather than 4. We liked that there were age appropriate crafts & activities. This was a small group, but a very nice size to work with. We hope it will grow in the future.

For decorations, we used upright-folded cafeteria tables, arranged in a semi-circle on each side of the hall to create the feeling of St. Peter’s Square. On each table was a silhouette picture or another picture from the clip art CD along with a few pictures of Pope Francis. After the “Future Saints” activity, we put the children’s’ projects on the other side. The youth assistants put together a 3D puzzle of St. Peter’s Basilica to display at the check-in table.

Our DRE gave the lesson about Eucharistic Adoration in the Chapel on Day 5. Father said a Votive Mass in honor of St. Peter, for the Closing and during the Homily, he talked to the children about what they learned. The children sang the theme song “Standin’ on the Rock” after Communion. It was so joyous to hear them singing “One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic”.

I have had completely positive feedback, and we are already planning for next year.
 
Congratulations! It sounds like a huge success. I bet you’re planning for next year in your head already…
 
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