With the big summer service week Camp MOSH in its off year, young people at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church still came together for a two-day “Mini MOSH” last week.
On Wednesday and Thursday, youth from the Viatorian Youth Ministry for MBVM and St. George served at several sites around the Bourbonnais-Kankakee region. Coordinator of Youth Ministry Pre-Associate Amanda Fierce planned and led the two days.
At one table, the young people took part in a game of Bingo.
Along with other parish adults, the group had a pair of special guests with them: Rafael and Desi Cobb of Belize. They are friends of the Viatorian Community from our former Foundation of Belize and continue working with Viatorians on special projects, including the MBVM Mission Trips. On this visit, they were helping coordinate and plan the next trip in January 2027, and they tagged along with Mini MOSH, too.
On Wednesday morning, the youth served at MCA Adult Care Center in Kankakee, where they did crafts, played Jenga, assembled puzzles, and more with adults spending the day there. For neighbors sometimes accounted of little importance who may not get many visitors, the young people brought extra excitement. “Our area didn’t have anything like this center. The founder has built a ton of connections and is doing well in connecting with local seniors in need. The place isn’t big or fancy, but it feels like home,” Amanda said. “Rafael and Desi dove right in, too, and the guests were so sweet with them and our teens.”
Rafael serves as Mission Director for Compassion Belize, a community nonprofit also partially based in Ohio. It serves the area in a variety of ways and matches mission trip participants from MBVM and other faith-based partners with impactful projects. Rafael loved the experience at the adult day center, so he gathered some information on the organization and plans to explore piloting a version in Belize, maybe during the January mission trip.
The group remulched huge areas of the grounds, and Pastor Fr. Jason Nesbit, CSV (bottom photo, left), grabbed a shovel to pitch in, too.
On Wednesday afternoon, they assisted the Bradley West Elementary food pantry. “Blessings in a Backpack packs food for kids to take home for the weekends. It’s all shelf-stable food, and teachers and social workers can identify kids who might most need to bring it home,” Amanda said. “We provide them food from Harvest Sunday, and now serving on-site put more pieces together for us. We saw the items that are most needed, the best sizes for things, and how they put packages together for different families.”
On Thursday morning, following daily Mass, the group did a home cleaning project for a neighbor, assembled birthday cake kits for the parish food pantry, and spread mulch on the Bishop McNamara elementary school playground on the parish campus. Associate Sue Goselin is principal for that site; she shared that the mulching might have taken adult volunteer groups several visits, but the young people completed it all in a morning.
Their last stop was cleaning and organizing at Georgie’s Closet in Bradley, a shop where children in foster care can come shop for free items. One of the young people serves at the organization every week, even when it’s not Mini MOSH!
On that middle evening, young people helped as servers and bussers at Culver’s for share night, where a portion of proceeds benefitted Sleep in Heavenly Peace. The organization builds beds for children in need, and the youth group also held a collection at Culver’s for new bedding sets.
“Culver’s share night is pretty popular around here. It’s not uncommon for us to take up 80% of the seating. They’ve gone so well that Culver’s even reached out to us to hold more,” Amanda said.
Where does the vitality and impact come from? “Our parishioners are so generous.”
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From the campus grounds to the food pantry, this group helped around parish as well as around the community.