Summer Stretch program reaches Hudson

A new opportunity offered at St. Patrick Catholic Church this past summer provided some great experiences in Christian service and fellowship for a group of junior high youth in the community.

A program called Summer Stretch was started at St. Patrick's in June for junior high youth. Summer Stretch is a gospel-centered approach to community service connecting churches of various denominations and youth organizations. Its purpose is to give incoming youth in grades 7, 8, and 9 a safe and healthy place to belong where they can contribute to the community and socialize with their peers. Summer Stretch was started about seven years ago by two youth ministers in the Twin Cities area. This year, more than 40 churches in the Twin Cities area chose to participate in Summer Stretch. St. Patrick's is the first church in Hudson to offer Summer Stretch.

"We're trying to do more programming which offers our youth a broader experience of church, things which go beyond the traditional Wednesday night religion class. Our youth want to be involved, and Summer Stretch seemed like a good idea for us," says Darin Wald, Youth Minister at St. Patrick's.

Summer Stretch had one dozen youth gathering for seven Thursdays in June, July and August. The group started the day with a short time of prayer and Scripture study. Mornings then included various service projects throughout the community. The group painted a park bathroom facility, helped the elderly with yard work and painting, did yard work at Willow River State Park, worked with maintenance at Hudson Hospital, and helped a family in need with moving.

After sharing lunch together, the group then spent afternoons socializing and doing fun things like bowling, swimming, tubing on the Apple River, roller-skating and watching movies. The summer concluded with a day at Valleyfair. All participating churches from the Twin Cities area came to Valleyfair, where more than 1,500 youth attended a closing rally.

Participating youth found that Summer Stretch made for a more meaningful summer. "I think it was a really good experience to get to know people and to help others in the community. It gave me a sense of accomplishment and achievement," explains Melissa Fitzenberger, a current eighth grader at Hudson Middle School.

The parish has rated Summer Stretch a success, and hopes to expand the program in the future. "It was great to spend the summer with this group of youth. They had so much enthusiasm for what we were doing. It would be great to add more youth next year. We purposely started small so that we could learn the ins and outs of the program. But there's so much to accomplish right here in Hudson, and it's nice to be able to give these kids have a positive place to spend the summer," says Wald.