SHG freshmen Patrick Dondanville, Kyle Boggs and Paola Trujillo-Manriquez were part of the some 40 young people and youth ministers from the diocese who attended the biennial conference.

Forty young people and youth ministers from at least four parishes and a Catholic high school in the Springfield diocese were among the 20,000 who attended the National Catholic Youth Conference, Nov. 8-10, in Columbus, Ohio. Sponsored by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, the conference is the largest gathering of young Catholics in the country and is held every other year.

Lissi Bombell, a sophomore at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in Springfield, was one of the 50 youth animators from around the country who were chosen to lead the prayer, song and dance movement during the huge group sessions held at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Lissi also played the violin, as an accompanist for Steve Angrisano, who served as master of ceremonies at the conference.

"I've played in orchestras before large groups and at church, but not in the round before 20,000 people, like there were at NCYC," said Lissi. "It was pretty crazy, hearing the echo at first. There were so many people there, but you really don't notice just how many until they all start cheering. It was really cool.

"I never thought I would ever meet Steve Angrisano in person. He was really cool about everything. He really loved what we were doing," said Lissi.

Sister Linda Mary DeLonais, OP, SHG campus minister, had two students in her group who had gone as sophomores to the last conference and were returning as seniors.

SHG sophomore Lissi Bombell plays a violin solo accompanying Steve Angrisano, master of ceremonies at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

Kyle Holtgrave, the diocese's new associate director for youth ministry, traveled to the conference on a chartered bus with a group of young people and youth ministers from Blessed Sacrament Parish in Quincy; SHG and St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Springfield, and St. Raymond Parish in Raymond. Another group from Our Lady, Queen of Peace Parish, Bethalto, drove to the conference with their parish youth minister.

"There may have been others from the diocese who were at the conference, but being new here, I am not aware of it," said Holtgrave.

For SHG freshman Patrick Dondanville, attending the conference was an all-new experience, which he said he would willingly do again. "The music was good. I can't really sing that well, according to my family. But you could clap and do other stuff," he said. He really enjoyed the keynote address by Father Tony Ricard. "Father Tony is everyone's kind of priest. Anyone would love him," said Patrick.

Father Tony is a former New Orleans public school teacher, who became a priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He is a parochial minister at several parishes in New Orleans and teaches church doctrine for the Institute of Black Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans.

"Father Tony Ricard caught everyone's attention," said Sister Linda Mary. "He just lit up that stage. Kids were just glued to him. He was a great story teller, basically telling us how very good we are and telling us not to forget that.

"He just had those kids enamored. He sang and danced, he did it all," said Sister Linda Mary. The crowd responded enthusiastically to Father Tony's talk, she said. "There is nothing that compares to 20,000 kids clapping and focused at the same time."