Atlanta ECYD Summer Activities blog
July 12, 2010
By 2010 ECYD Mission Corps Team
Dear parents,
Welcome to the "ECYD summer camp update blog." Every two days or so, we will post an update, letting you know about the activities of the three camps, and sometimes the events for this summer's ECYD Mission Corps.
July 10, 2010 Update
Dear Friends,
Day 3 of Crusader's camp is already over!
It was "Shantytown" day, so after a few morning activities, we began building our "Shanty's". Each team was issued a few tarps, some twine, some bungee cords, and an "Eviction Notice" was posted on all the buildings. We were kicked out for the day!
The campers and their team leaders put their heads together, and came up with some pretty creative solutions!
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Once the tents were built, the teams were sent on a scavenger hunt to find their food for the night. It was tough - especially since it started to rain! But eventually all the teams found a bag of food, and the chicken which they would spice up and give to the dads to roast for their dinner!
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Once the chickens were roasting, we all headed to the chapel for mass, where Fr Dominic gave a great homily! It was about the caterpillars that were killing his favorite plant...in a way only Fr Dominic can, he related this story to how we sometimes need to get rid of the little things in our lives that keep us from being the good boys God made us to be.
After mass we had a great game of Ultimate Frisbee in the rain:
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We ended the day in the best way possible. We had a night-time procession with the Blessed Sacrament from the chapel all the way down to "Shantytown," and into the "Shantytown Basilica", where a cross and altar were prepared for Jesus. There we had a Holy Hour, in adoration before Christ in the tent. Fr. Dominic told us about a poor boy with Down Syndrome who he knew when he was little, and he talked about how people like that, in a way, have an advantage because they suffer so much and go straight to heaven. Those of us who have received so much have to work very hard to use our gifts well, so that we, too, can go to heaven. He told us that we should pray every day that our families will one day go to heaven with us.
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All in all, it was a wonderful day!!
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Yours in Christ,
The ECYD Mission Corps Blog Team
July 9, 2010 Update
Dear Friends,
It's already Day 3 of the Crusader's Camp!
We made the three teams on our first day. Each team has 3 campers and 2 counselors. The names are interesting as usual:
Team "BOT" (Black Ops Troopers)
Team "ATLAS" (A Team Leading All Souls)
And finally, team "Undefeatable Cheese" (No secret meaning here...just good old fashioned goofiness.)
Yesterday, our first full day, we had the "2010 Crusader Camp Olympics." Each team painted their faces with their team colors...
Then we had the opening ceremony, when each boy ran in when his nickname was called, with the Rocky Theme Song in the background.
We had a lot of events. To name a few, the especially difficult 5-legged relay
Waterballoon Volleyball:
Tug-o-war:
Waterballoon Launch (Br Gabriel and a few Team Leaders launched balloons hundreds of feet in the air, and the boys tried to catch them):
Today we started "Shantytown" - those pics will hopefully go up tomorrow! Until then, God bless you all, and keep praying for the success of the camp!!
In Christ,
The ECYD Mission Corps Blog Team
July 7, 2010 Update
2010 Conquest Crusaders Camp
Blairsville, GA
Day 1 - Dear parents,
This is the first edition of the 2010 Crusaders Camp blog. We will be sending them out every day or two to inform you on what your kids will be doing during the camp. Today the boys arrived and started out the camp with an intense game of soccer followed by an opening mass. After mass, they divided into their teams and designed their team flags, posters, and made up their team chant. We ended the day with a bonfire and night games. Each team has a Team Leader and a Team Captain who are "big kids" - some of us ECYD summer missionaries. We're all going to be big brothers for these boys this week, and it's an honor!!
July 6, 2010 Update
2010 3rd and 4th Stage ECYD Convention
Blairsville, GA
Dear Friends,
The Summer-coworkers have just begun our 2nd camp of the summer: the 2010 3rd & 4th Stage ECYD Convention. Since most of the guys who came are the same age as we are, we all are participants in the convention, as well as team leaders and auxiliaries to Fr Dominic and Br Gabriel.
It's such a great group of guys!! We are 21 in total, all rising 8th, 9th, and 10th graders. Hopefully each and every one will appear sometime on this blog, so keep yourselves updated by checking this every day!
Day 1
After a good ultimate Frisbee game, we were all divided into 4 teams, and given a blank posterboard, a blank sheet of canvas, 5 tanktop undershirts, and an hour to work. Our job? To come up with our team name, team logo, team chant, team poster, team flag, and team shirts. The results were interesting, to say the least: Team "Blue Fire", Team "Fishers of Men", "the J-Team", and team "Freedom Fighters". As you can see, we're not short on artists for this camp!
After this, we had a few minutes for "bible charades" - no talking, no props, and a minute to get the other teams to figure out what bible passage you're presenting. Some of the guys really came up with some good passages...
Day 2
Today, after morning prayers and a good breakfast, we headed out on our "Mountain Rally". Each team was given about 15 objectives which they had to complete, carrying their team flag and trying to protect their "team water balloons." Each team had a camera to take pictures, which we judged for points in the evening. Some examples of their objectives: "go 30 paces north from Crossroads to find hidden snack"; "Take a picture with random hikers holding your team's water balloons"; Do the pyramid on top of the mountain - bonus points if you get a hiker to be a part of the pyramid" (See pictures below - the guy with a beard is not one of us adolescents.)
We had mass when we got back, then a good dinner. We ended with 2 rounds of Debates, where the boys debated some tough questions: Salvation outside of the Church, The so called "Double-effect" - when a good action has evil consequences, and vice-versa. The boys showed some real wisdom!
Well, more updates should come soon! Until then...God bless!
In Christ,
The ECYD Mission Corps Blogger
July 3, 2010 Update
My apologies for the late, late post, it's been very busy over the past few days. So busy I could barely reach a computer! Although, this update's going to be HUGE, so I hope that makes up for it - Br. Gabriel Lewis, LC Day 6 Day 7 The kids had morning meditation, played sports, had mass, and spent some time doing the "Nuclear Clean-up" - tidying the dorms, the mess hall, and the chapel.
Sunday marked the start of the 2010 Olympics-ConQuest style. The opening ceremony consisted of facepaint, flag waving, and the playing of the anthem for the CQ Olympics: the Rocky theme. Epic.
The activities consisted of favorites such as discus toss and speed relay. Not to mention good old tug-of-war and 3-legged races. There were also some fresh new games added to the mix, such as dizzy relay (kids spin around 10 times before running the race), a bear crawl relay, and a game called mortar, where the teams used a big slingshot to shoot crabapples into squares of cones for points. The day was packed with games. The ones I'm mentioning now are only the ones a few other coworkers and I could remember off the top of our heads. Let's just say, they were busy! I could tell they really enjoyed it though.
They were really driven to do their best, and worked hard making the place cleaner than they found it! We hope they continue to work this hard for their moms now that they're back home!
Day 8 And finally, here are a few pictures from our last day: mass, incorporations into ECYD, and the final awards ceremony! Look for the picture of Team 3, the winning team of the 2010 ECYD Convention: "The Blairsville Bandana Boys!" Here are the nominees, and the winner, of our 5 ECYD Convention Awards: Chipper Chihuahua Award (Constant Joy and Enthusiasm) - Patrick Carroll
ECYD summer camp update #4 is now live! Day 4 Day 5 We then went directly from the restaurant to Vogel State Park. There, we started with a half-mile hike around a lake. There was a big waterfall along the trail. Fr. Dominic used that waterfall as an example in his homily that day (moms, you're going to love this!). He compared the huge streams of water going down below to the love of a mother. The mist which floats up at the bottom is like the love and generosity of a son trying to give back. Although he gives some back, Father said, he could never give enough to repay the generosity of his mom. So after the small lake trail, we hiked up a small mountain which gave a scenic view of the park. Good view to end the day. Day 6 The 2010 Blairsville Summer OLYMPICS!! Among the many competitions: relays, dizzy relays, bear-crawl relays, water balloon "Mortar attack", water balloon volleyball, tug-o-war, ultimate Frisbee, football, soccer, and more! Well, we'll be seeing many of you soon. We'd like to invite all of you to mass Tuesday at 11 o'clock, followed by lunch and our awards ceremony, before all the boys head home! Welcome to the ECYD summer camp update #3! Things have been going very well over the past few days. They've been packed with fun and formation. Here's the rundown: Day 4 They did a great job with the supplies given to them, as well as help from Mother Nature. Just have a look at these pictures! So after building their shantytown, the teams split up to search for water, snacks, and some bags of chicken for dinner. The coworkers had planned for the hunt to last at least 45 minutes, but the kids were geniuses, and most of them finished the hunt in 20 minutes flat. For instance, one of the clues to find the water was, "Like a red caboose, it follows. But I don't like red. I prefer the color of the night sky." It took one of the kids 15 seconds flat to figure out that it was by the black trailer which holds a lot of the camp supplies. Brilliant! It was a joy to watch. So after the hunt, they all pitched in to make their teams' chicken, which was cooked on the grill, and eaten later in the day. Welcome to Edition 2 of the ECYD Summer Camp Update! We've got some pictures for everybody. Enjoy these shots: Well, until tomorrow everybody, take it easy and God Bless! Sounds... Relatively easy, right? Well every kid in the room would yell and scream at the people playing, trying to keep the blindfolded guy from hearing his guide. My ears hurt....... But nonetheless, it was fun. I snapped a few pictures of the game. I had to get really in on the action for some of these shots. Hope you enjoy them! Stay tuned for more updates. We have a few surprises for the boys over the next few days, which we'll share when they happen. See you next Thursday! This update will be all about the activities of the ECYD Mission Corps over the past week. This past week has been mission week for the Corps, filled with prayer, sacrifice, and great generosity to others. The "Mission Corps" for the missions consisted of the nine coworkers from Atlanta (including the two from Spain!) and eleven coworkers from Louisiana. The week of missions started with a trip to Alabama to see the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (known for having the 2nd biggest Monstrance in the world), as well as a trip to a house for a Cenacolo Community. The Cenacolo community is a place for addicts to cleanse themselves through work, sacrifice, and prayer. To finish the day, we were able to go to the EWTN studios in Irondale to be on the set of "Life on the Rock." It was an amazing experience, needless to say. The next day, we were back in GA. We went to a park in Forsyth to have a day of fun for disabled children of the Miracle League. Games like baseball, soccer, and water balloon toss were played, and the kids were treated to a hot dog lunch. The day after that, Friday, had to have been the biggest of our missions. The coworkers spent a day among the residents of a run-down trailer park in Jonesboro, playing games, cooking and serving a real American lunch (hot dogs, lays, country-time lemonade, and watermelon), and just being friends for the Hispanic children.
Sunday was a day of rest: the Louisiana boys left for home, and we went up to a "River House" owned by Chris Carrol, where we rafted and kayaked for 3 hours under the sun, then played 3 hours of "Airsoft" before going to Zaxby's for dinner and a shake!
The highlight of the day was a trip to Lake Blue Ridge, where Paige Brown was kind enough to host us for a swimming, diving, kayaking afternoon, ending with some great burgers. The deck was 15 feet high, so we all had to work up our courage to make the jump. You should have seen Fr Dominic's one-and-a-half flip!!
We ended the day and, in a way, the convention, with a campfire. We played the guitar and sang songs, then Fr Dominic shared some thoughts, and opened the floor to the boys for their own testimonies. Some of the boys shared some beautiful reflections. As John Paul Hoover said, "every day, every step, we've grown close to Christ...the week has gone so fast! It seems like we just started!"
Mr. Clean (Gentleman's award - punctuality, manners, neatness) - Shane Ward
The Golden Brick Ward (Fidelity, dependability for the team) - John Chiboucas
Apostolic Award (Service) - Francesco Mion
Iron Man (Overall Man-of-the-retreat) - Runner-up - John Paul Hoover
Winner - Francesco Mion 
June 28, 2010 Update
The kids slept in their shantytown shelters for the night. They slept pretty well, and really enjoyed the experience. After the usual morning routine, the younger boys were treated to a trip to a place called Funworld, where they rode go-karts, played putt-putt and laser tag, and enjoyed the arcade with Fr Dominic. The older boys took a trip to the Ocoee river for a bit of white-water rafting, led by some great river guides. Both groups had a great time. When everyone was back at the retreat center, the fun continued with a great match of soccer, and a great bit of time to rest and relax. Come the evening, storms kept us inside, so Fr. Dominic and Br. Gabriel put together a great slideshow with all the great moments of the week. They also played with photoshop a bit...
The day closed with a great talk by Br. Gabriel about the importance of listening to your guide (Christ) to get you through the rapids of life. He knows the river, knows the dangerous rocks and the most exciting rapids, and the best path to the very end...he gives us the "oar" of our freedom, we just have to listen to him to know how to use it. All in all, it was a great day!
We'd like to thank all the Dads that have helped us out so far! It has made a big difference:
Saturday was a ton of fun. Brother was able to arrange for us to go to the local Zaxby's restaurant in the afternoon to watch the US versus Ghana World Cup game! The game dragged on for 2 hours, and all the kids had a blast, either getting far into the action on TV, or dominating each other at card games. Unfortunately, US lost 2-1, but it didn't matter to most of us; we still had a great time!
Well, that's all for today, I'll be writing the activities of today soon. It was really busy! But until then, take care, and God Bless!
For the opening ceremony each team painted their faces according to their team colors...some got a little - ahem - "carried away" with the paint.
Here are a few pictures to give you an idea!
We were caught off guard by a sudden thunderstorm in the middle of our first "water balloon volleyball" (Each team has towels, and must toss the water balloon back and forth over the net for points)...so we came inside drenched and had a great snack of chilled watermelon.
Finally, don't be frightened by these pictures, but who could imagine you could get so many laughs out of a 99 cent packet of "Wiggly Eyes" - technically meant for arts and crafts, but we found a better use for them. Enjoy!
Even Mr. Satory had fun with these!
June 26, 2010 Update
The boys were evicted from their dorms and the mess hall.
They were allowed no indoor conveniences, and would be fined 500 points for any intrusions. It was time for Shantytown. Before their unfortunate eviction, the teams were supplied with tarps, ropes, and bungee cords to build a shelter for them to sleep in later that night.
To finish the day, everyone gathered in the chapel for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
From the chapel, everyone led a procession to the shantytown, where Fr. Dominic offered a Holy Hour in one of the tents! It was an awe-inspiring experience.
From then on, you could feel Christ's presence in the shantytown, even when he was back in the chapel tabernacle.
The kids slept well that night, needless to say. It had been a very active day.June 24, 2010 Update
The kids have been having a blast. Yesterday was full of sports and activities, so there's never a dull moment. Today is very special for the theme of the week, which is "Soul Survivor." The boys are about to be evicted from their dorms and will be forced to live off the land, building shelters out of some rope, a tarp, sticks, rocks, and such. They will also have to scour the area for precious resources, such as water bottles, cookies, and bags of chicken. Don't worry moms, the chicken will be cooked! They'll find it through a scavenger hunt, with clues and food hidden by the coworkers. So then after a hard days' work outside of the common comforts, they'll sleep in their shelters tonight. It will be awesome to see what they come up with for said shelters. No worries, as soon as they're built, there will be pictures.
ECYD Mission Corps Team June 23, 2010 Update
The current camp is the 1st and 2nd Stage ECYD Summer Convention, and so far it's been a blast.
Day 1
The time had finally come for the boys to arrive. Fifteen minutes after arriving, the boys had organized a game of football, allowing them to integrate with each other. Afterwards, they played Bible Charades, which resulted in a lot of laughs.
To top the end of the day off, Fr. Dominic offered Adoration and Benediction for thirty minutes, allowing the boys to finish the day with a visit to Christ in the Eucharist. Overall, it was a great day. For the ECYD summer coworkers, it was a great start to the week. Everyone got along very well, and yes, moms, everyone here is behaving!
Day 2
Today started the day with a visit to Christ exposed for adoration. After a good breakfast, the kids went out to play a game called Caterpillar, with the simple objective of five young men holding on to each other arms for dear life while avoiding the other caterpillars from breaking their chain.
After several seriously competitive rounds, they headed to the mess hall for a blindfolded obstacle course. Each blindfolded person had a guide who would lead them through the perilous realms of picnic tables and benches to the other side of the hall to snatch a ball from one of the coworkers. They would then switch positions, with the guide now being the blindfolded one, and do it again.
So now, the teams are making chants and posters for themselves. So far, I've heard mentions of "Eye of the Tiger" and Justin Bieber. I'll be interested to see what they come up with. 
On the schedule for the rest of the day is Mass, games, a talk by Fr. Dominic, and my personal favorite activity for the day: water balloons. It's looking to be a fun day!
Sincerely,
Austin O'Neil
Head Blogger
ECYD Mission CorpsJune 22, 2010 Update
Yesterday and today we spent preparing for our first camp, which will begin this afternoon at 5:00...22 kids are on their way, and we've got to do our best to give them a real experience of Christ.
Be ready for more updates, coming soon!
In Christ,
The ECYD Mission Corps Team
