Metro area — Preparing for a pilgrimage, sometimes you’ve got to get a little bit dirty.

Just ask teens in the Archdiocese of Detroit, who in a lead-up to the international World Youth Day celebration in August have been rolling up their sleeves to help their communities and form stronger bonds with one another.

Ashley Koehler, a 16-year-old from St. Mary’s in St. Clair is one of them. In late April, along with young people from several other area parishes, she was weeding the garden at Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Port Huron.

“Doing this kind of helps me get closer to God, and I feel I’m spreading His word to all the people who really need it,” she says.

Service is one of the key focuses on the lead-up to World Youth Day, which is August 21. Here in the Detroit area and across the globe, as teenagers and young adults get ready to gather by the millions in Madrid, Spain, they do so by connecting to their communities at home.

“It gives them a sense of sharing their faith on a bigger level,” says Theresa Barrons, youth minister at St. Mary Parish, who led the Blue Water Vicariate service project at Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission.

Kelly McClelland, a 15-year-old form St. Mary Parish in Port Huron, says she can see the connection.



“I think it’s just really cool how so many people around the world will be doing the same exact things we’ll be doing,” says McClelland. “It’s cool to see how big the Church is and how we’re all together.”

Her fellow parishioner, Gage Nowaczyk, says it’s gratifying to help the community — especially at a place like Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, which has Masses, health care services and child services for the Hispanic community of Port Huron.

But it serves an even bigger purpose, too, says Nowaczyk, 17.

“When our group comes together here, when we talk, we inform ourselves about what’s happening around us,” he says. “We leave with that information and we can change people around us. It’s not just like it effects only us. It helps us spread the word.”

Kayla White, a 15-year-old from Holy Family Parish in Memphis, agrees.

“You know that you are not alone,” she says. “And there’s tons of other Catholics out there who have the same faith as you.”

Across the archdiocese, in Lincoln Park, the teenagers from Christ the Good Shepherd Parish made their way to the Earthworks garden in Detroit, where food is grown for the needy in the community. They spent a day picking berries and vegetables, pruning plants and helping maintain the gardens.



“It’s about doing what Jesus asked us to do — about being the hands and feet of Christ in the world,” says Holly Tockstein, youth minister at Christ the Good Shepherd. “Teens are able to do that by doing service. In this project, this garden is used to help those who are less fortunate in the area… working in the garden is a way to help provide that to them.”

The young people in her youth group see the value.

“Any type of service is good to do because it helps you relate to other people,” says Danielle Carmody, 15, who worked in a greenhouse, removing dead leaves from plants. “That’s what World Youth Day is about — learning new people with your faith.”

Alice Mercer, 16, her fellow youth group member, says World Youth Day also is about transforming the world into one that serves as Christ taught.

“World Youth Day is bringing everybody together, and this is kind of doing that with our youth group. It’s kind of showing us that we can change the world, one step at a time.”