Food donations collected from the southeast neighborhoods of Webster Saturday morning were donated to the Connections Center that afternoon. Pictured are Gwen, Lilly, Natasha, Daniel, Anthony, Gabe, Dominic, Sydney and Fr. Mike Tupa, pastor of the Webster and Danbury parishes. (Submitted photo)
Youths and chaperones from St. John the Baptist, Webster, participated in a 30-hour famine event Friday, Feb. 26, to Saturday, Feb. 27.
The effort benefited the Connections Center for Burnett County, a thrift store and family resource center in Webster. More than $600, plus food and clothing donations, was collected.
All participants were asked to eat their Friday lunch as usual, and report to St. John Church at 6 p.m. No solid food was served or consumed during the following 23-plus hours.
Fruit and vitamin juices were available throughout the evening and on Saturday. Information, art, music, Scripture and games were used to raise awareness about the scope of world and local hunger issues.
“The teens were super about getting into the spirit of the event, exercising will power, and encouraging one another when hunger pains made themselves felt,” said Gwen Nies, director of faith formation. “We went shopping as teams for ‘Groceries on a Budget’ – which were then part of the mound of food … donated to Connections; designed posters highlighting statistics and goals for alleviating hunger; canvassed several neighborhoods in Webster for contributions; delivered the items to and assisted personnel at Connections in sorting the nonperishable food items collected; helped to clean several areas of this all important resource facility for our area.” During the event, youth had several short periods of free time, watched the movie “God’s Not Dead,” slept for a few hours, attended Saturday afternoon Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Danbury, and finished the event with a celebration meal.
“We were happy to experience this short time of solidarity with so many in our world who are hungry every day,” Nies added.
