Part of the Youth Group on their trip to Mexico City.
The Saint Margaret Mary Catholic Church Youth Ministry's raffle to raise money for a pilgrimage to Rome is complete and the results are in. The effort was a smashing success, raising around $19,000.
The drawing was streamed on Facebook Live on July 5th. Judy Yirsa, who runs the youth program, shared the results of the drawing: "Our first prize winner was Katrina Benjamin from Fort Benton. Later, when she picked up the Can Am from my house, she said she only bought one ticket. She bought it at the Fort Benton Summer Celebration. We always told people that it only takes one to win. The second prize went to Brandon Olson from Havre, and the third prize was Chris Walter, also from Havre."
Judy explained, "With this money, along with some of the other fundraising that we've done, we are about three quarters of the way for our entire fundraising budget. We're trying to get 14 students to Italy, and with that, we want to pay for their airfare, hotel, the transportation, the tour guide, and all the taxes. The idea is for the parents not to pay for anything unless maybe they want a souvenir, but all meals will be paid for. As of now, we can pay for 10 out of the 14, which is not bad." She is confident that they will reach their larger goal by their June 2, 2025 departure date.
The trip to Italy will be the second pilgrimage undertaken by the young people of Saint Margaret Mary Catholic Church. The previous trip was to Mexico City, which is a popular pilgrimage destination for Catholics, specifically to visit the Basilica de Guadalupe and other sites associated with Our Lady Guadalupe. Judy explained that the trip had a positive impact on the spiritual lives of the students in their program. "They started attending church a little bit more often, even with their families." She explained that the goal was to help the students get closer to God. "We want them to come to church more often as a family. I just think pilgrimages are such a great way to kind of make history come alive. You can learn about it in a textbook or reading." She explained that seeing it with your own eyes "makes it real, like tactile." Yirsa's own experience with taking a pilgrimage, and the impact it had on her faith was similar. It resulted in an increased desire to engage with the church.
This year, the youth program will be studying the early church, which brought about the idea of taking a trip to Italy to see many sites associated with the early church there. "We're going to do a little bit of a circular tour. We're going to start in Rome to see the Roman Forum, which has the remains of where Peter and Paul were incarcerated. Then St. Peter's Basilica where St. Peter was martyred." She also explained they plan to visit 'Paul Outside the Wall.' It's where he's buried. A lot of Rome, just in general, is such a huge reminder of all the Christian martyrs. They suffered so much persecution, and it's everywhere." The trip will continue around the country, visiting sites until they return to Rome for their journey home. In total the students will be traveling from June 2nd to the 13th.
Judy has been running the youth program in Big Sandy for 6 years. The pilgrimages are a product of bringing skills from her previous profession to bear on the program. Before having children, Yirsa started her own travel agency.
Over and over, throughout our conversation, Judy expressed thanks to the community for their support, especially Tillman's Motors and Red's in Havre for giving the church a bargain on the Can Am Defender and the Lafurgey family, for their donation of the pork for the second place prize.
