Peachtree City
Holy Trinity Race Funds Teen Mission Trip
Published April 26, 2012
Over 150 runners took part in the Trinity Trail Run at Holy Trinity Church to benefit 54 teens and 19 adults who’ll attend a Catholic Heart Workcamp mission trip.
The 155 registered runners included Deacon Ben Gross and Father Dairo Rico, parochial vicar in the parish, and there were 36 race sponsors, among them Acura South Atlanta, the Peachtree City Running Club and TCBY. Pastor Father John Murphy started the March 17 race by ringing chapel bells. Afterward, a pancake breakfast was served and winners honored in each age category.
The fundraiser raised $4,500 to pay for the annual mission trip to Catholic Heart Workcamp.
The national Catholic outreach sponsors almost 50 different camp locations in cities around the United States in the summer where teens serve people in need, alongside their peers.
The mission is to “share the love of Jesus and serve the neglected, brokenhearted, and marginalized … and to empower participants to live as disciples of Christ.”
Mission participants spend a week in an area of need, usually in an inner city. Days are spent doing work alongside Catholic teens from other parts of the country on community projects, from repairing homes to cleaning soup kitchens and from performing maintenance for elderly people to spending time with developmentally disabled adults. Evenings are spent in fellowship and worship.
Teens and adults typically stay in a local school, where hundreds eat together and sleep on the floor. The comforts and luxuries of home are left behind. For many this is a life-changing experience as they realize that their own problems and difficulties pale in comparison to the daily struggles faced by others. Often teens and adults return with a greater commitment to serving their community and others.
Holy Trinity parishioner Vince Obsitnik went on a mission in Memphis, Tenn., last year with his sons, Colin and Spencer.
“To be able to witness the enthusiasm and spirituality which moved throughout the camp was incredible. I saw the face of Christ in the campers, and especially in the faces of those we served,” he said.
Rebecca Capezzuto of Holy Trinity Church said, “As a staff member of Holy Trinity and as an adult volunteer with Catholic Heart Workcamp for three years, having served in north Philadelphia and the inner city of Memphis, I have personally witnessed the positive impact Catholic Heart Workcamp has had both on the communities being served as well as the adult and teen volunteers who are serving.”
“During each mission trip I have watched in amazement as hearts were transformed and relationships were formed through community service, fellowship and worship. Catholic Heart Workcamp provides the opportunity to be the person Jesus calls one to be through serving as his hands and feet to those in need,” she said.
To contribute to the effort, save March 16, 2013, to take part in the second Trinity Trail 5K/2K race.