Along with learning and strengthening their faith, the youth of St. Marcus Catholic Church in Clear Lake are spending the year serving the community.

Service learning is a big part of most youth programs, and the Faith Formation youth group at St. Marcus are working hard to follow that mission this year. Their goal is to perform at least one community service project a month. 

The youth, who are in preschool through 8th grade, have a say in what projects they perform throughout the year. They work together to make a list of potential ideas, narrow the list down to their top two and then choose the one everyone is most excited about.

So far, the group has gone out three times this year.

In October, the kids got together to make bookmarks and red, white and blue woven placemats for veterans at the St. Cloud VA who are in hospice. They made so many placemats they were able to provide them to both floors.

“We were thanked more than once,” said Youth Ministry Advisory Peggy Berger, “The hospice managers told us the vets were really excited to see the placemats when they came in for lunch.”

In November the group decided they wanted to ensure everyone who has a role at St. Marcus, no matter how small, felt appreciated, so they created and personally signed thank you cards for everyone on the list and dropped them in the mail.

December saw the group going door-to-door around Clear Lake singing Christmas carols.

The Faith Formation students are currently planning their community service projects for January, February and March.