ROCHESTER — St. Jude parishioners of all ages have been supporting several good causes at once this summer, says Dan Frachey, the parish director of Christian formation. Adults are supporting the students who attend Vacation Bible School by contributing VBS food items; children brought cereal, peanut butter and other canned items to VBS sessions to help fill shelves at the local food pantry; and this year a good number of children and adult parishioners have been sponsoring the purchases of mosquito nets for children in Western Africa.
"For the last three years we have partnered with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to purchase items for people in need. This year students were asked to bring $1 each night of VBS to sponsor the purchase of mosquito nets," Frachey says. "CRS asks for donations for different items during different years. One year we donated for soccer balls and last year we donated for backpacks."
The food collected at St. Jude is used locally. "At Vacation Bible School we use creative snacks to teach the kids," says Frachey. "Here at this parish we have always had the great tradition of supporting VBS each summer by allowing individuals to sign up to purchase one of the needed food items that will be used to help teach one of the actual classes each evening. Father Dean Probst represents the Church of St. Jude on the Rochester Ministerial Association so we also contribute collected food to the Rochester Food Pantry."
The people at St. Jude Parish also want to stop malaria in a faraway place. In a news release from CRS, regional information officer Lane Hartill explains that each night "millions of West Africans fall asleep at night to the buzzing of mosquitoes." "They mummy themselves in bed sheets trying to escape the killers of the continent. But the Anopheles mosquitoes, Africa's most unwanted houseguests, are known for their persistence. They find their way to their hosts and make a meal of them. The hosts are easy pickings when they not under a mosquito net."
When a mosquito finds a victim, it exchanges its deadly parasite for a dinner of blood. "It's not a fair trade," says Hartill. "The victim rolls over, scratches and wonders if it will be the one that brings on palu — that's malaria in West Africa.
"Contracting malaria means taking money meant for dinners and school fees and farming equipment and handing it to pharmacists for malaria medicine," he says. "It means staying home and waiting out the fever and chills and aches. It ends in lost days of work, missed school and less money earned."
Frachey explains that each night when the children came to VBS and met with their "crews" they gave any money they brought in to their crew leaders. Those leaders then gave them a mosquito clip to place on a net in front of the parish center. Before long the net was covered with clips.
"We asked parishioners to help, too, by offering $10 to purchase a net and then signing a card. We put the cards on display so children could see how well the parish is rallying around efforts to stop malaria in Africa," Frachey says, adding that on the first collection weekend Deacon Tom Walker preached about the lives of the poor, which tied right in to the program. "The program was so successful that I ran out of the sign-up cards that first week. I had 60 to distribute."
In keeping with the theme of fighting off malaria, Frachey dressed up as a big mosquito during the closing parish VBS picnic so the kids could douse him with water, adding to the excitement the children had that week. "Every year I dress up as something that relates to the VBS week," he says. "The kids really think it is fun."
On a more serious note, Frachey says he couldn't be more proud of the help parishioners are offering.
"I am so happy this program is going so well," Frachey says. "Even before VBS began and the 50 registered children could even begin to give their dollars to help children avoid malaria in Western Africa, the families at St. Jude donated $850 to purchase 85 treated mosquito nets. With more families still asking to take part in demonstrating their solidarity with the VBS kids, we should end up giving about $1,200 to CRS."