Saint Mary teen ministry hosts a Polynesian dinner

IC photo by Christine Young

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Tehamata Polynesian entertainers from Salt Lake City demonstrate their dance techniques for Saint Mary parishioners during a dinner hosted by the St. Mary youth group.

OGDEN — Saint Mary Parish Teen Ministry from West Haven hosted a Polynesian dinner in the Saint Joseph Catholic High School Black Box Theater to raise funds to buy musical instruments and sheet music to start a teen family Mass at the parish.

The group also wants to raise funds for tuition assistance at Saint Joseph Catholic High School for St. Mary students, to give some money to St. Mary’s building fund to show the teens can give back for what the parish offers them, and gratitude for use of the Black Box Theater for their fund raiser. The Teen Ministry involves students in 6th through 12th grade. The instruments they hope to purchase are guitars, a drum set, and some woodwinds.

“We want to reach out to more people and youth who go to our church. We want them to attend more of our activities,” said Jacel Recto, a junior at Roy High School. “We are looking to create a larger teen ministry. So when we get our instruments, we can start the band that we have been wanting for a while.”

“Having the Teen Mass will give the kids a responsibility, and I think it will mean a lot more to them because they will participate by proclaiming the readings,” said Nicole Jamieson, assistant youth minister. “We’ve had quite a few youth Masses in our parish and we hope to be able to continue them.”

“We will do future activities so we can show the kids we’re not just doing serious things, that we can have fun too,” said Kayla Dupont, a sophomore at St. Joseph Catholic High School.

“We’re reaching out to everyone in our community, not just Catholics,” said Recto. “We don’t want to create barriers. We just want to play music and pray and share that with the community.”

The youth participate in the Autumn Catholic Teen Social held in October, Recto said, and they enter a float in the Ogden City Christmas parade every year, which has won Best Theme the last two years.

“We will have more fund raisers because we want the students to take part in the Youth Outreach Ministry in San Diego in July,” said Lisa Mendez, St. Mary youth minister. “This event is hosted by students from Steubenville College.”

“It is incredible for the youth to put on this dinner,” said Father Gustavo Vidal, pastor, who transferred to St. Mary two weeks ago. “That shows these young people are committed to this youth group. You have to be very well organized to put on a dinner like this because it takes a lot of work and it was all done by them.

“They will have an awesome experience in San Diego with the students from Steubenville,” he said. “I used to send youth from St. George to San Diego.”

Fr. Vidal was transferred to St. Mary after serving at St. George Parish for six years.

St. Mary Choir director Chris San Nicolas and his family and friends from Guam cooked the traditional Polynesian dinner. He has been on the mainland for 10 years. “We’ve had a great turn out and this is the largest event the youth group has ever done,” he said. “That is why we wanted to help. The kids are the future of the Church.”

The Tehamata Polynesian dancers performed and taught unsuspecting volunteers from the audience a few moves. Abby Jamieson, 10 and her friend Journey Wagstaff, 11 also performed a Hawaiian dance. They are too young for the youth group but said they can’t wait to join.