Youth Surive 30 hour famine and raise $ at St. Julie Parish

On April 28 and 29, twenty participants from the St. Julies Youth Group journeyed through 30 hours of fasting from food, cell phones, electronics, and family to raise awareness and money for the hungry in our world.

The teens began their fast on Friday afternoon at their schools surrounded by friends who questioned why they were doing this. Most told me that at the time, they had no good answer…Why fast?

After participating in many activities Friday night to raise our awareness about the 29,000 children who die every day of hunger and hunger related illness, and beginning to treasure juice breaks, the teens finally fell asleep at about 3:00am many outside, building wind breaks to keep them warm.

On Saturday morning, we freshened up and donned our “30-hour famine” T-shirts and signs reading “29,000 children die every day of hunger and hunger related illness. We are doing something about it.” We marched up Cottle Road to the Light Rail station which we rode downtown to the St. John station. From there, we marched past the grandiose new City Hall and expensive statues to an old, run down Victorian house called Casa de Clara which quietly serves women and children in need. Our stomachs now growling after walking past restaurants along the way, we met one of the staff from Casa de Clara who explained that this was a place where women and their children are welcome while they find their way to a better life. The staff at Casa de Clara provides resources and understanding to women for two weeks to a month while they get back on their feet in new jobs and new housing. It is not surprising that operating purely from small donations, this house of love does not have the means to keep up the yard, so we followed the staff to a small shed out in the back yard for tools and spent two hours pulling weeds, sanding the deck, scrubbing playground equipment, and preparing lasagna for their Saturday dinner.

The walk and ride back to St. Julies was long and hot. We were all getting a bit crabby, but I began to hear the teens discuss and question. When we saw a discarded box of french-fries on the side walk, one of the girls commented, “I’m actually tempted to pick one up and eat it.” Others talked about how lucky we were because although we would still have to wait a while (they knew to the minute when dinner would be delivered) the kids we had learned about the night before didn’t have a dinner plan. They compared the assumed expense of the huge glass dome at city hall to the basic repairs needed at Casa de Clara. One asked, “Did you know there is enough food in the world for everyone, but people still starve to death?”

When we arrived back to the Sullivan Center, we posed the question again…Why fast. Finally they understood. By our suffering, if only for one day, we began to get a glimpse of what others live every day. The group decided they would work to continue to raise awareness of this world wide tragedy. We broke our fast with Eucharist at 5:00 mass.

To date, we have collected over $3,000 and the money is not due until this Sunday. “Together we can make a difference!”



Anne Peterson

St. Julies Youth Group