USA Council
Newsletter
Of
The Bay Area Serra Club
July 1, 2003
New Members
We welcome our new members who joined the club in 2003.
Juanita Solis
Hector J. Ibarra
Tim and Annette Healy
John and Liz Calhoon
Herb Newell
April, 2003
The packets
and posters for the Life Awareness and Explore Programs were distributed
to all the churches and schools in District
10.
The Life Awareness Program
was held on July 18th, 19th, and 20th at the Holy Name Retreat Center.
The purpose of Life Awareness is to
enable men and women to better educate themselves about religious life,
and whether or not it might be for them. Since the first session in 1983,
over 800 have attended, and over 100 have entered religious life. The
program is open to all Catholics of ages 18 to 45. No fee is charged.
The Altar
Servers picnic was a big success. Approximately 80 Altar Servers attended. Astronaut
and Navy Lt. Commander William Oefelein gave a wonderful
talk on space exploration, which riveted the attention of all.
At a
subsequent business meeting a discussion was held on how to improve attendance
at the picnic.
One problem mentioned was competing weekend activities.
May 2003
The Explore
Program for junior high students was held at St. Mary's Seminary. The
Explore Program's objective is to help develop the spiritual
life of teenage boys, with the hope that further nurturing will encourage
latent vocations to come forth.
The annual Serra Club Banquet
was attended by a large turnout by all of the area Serra Clubs. The Bay Area
Club had about 15 members present
plus the Essay Contest winners and their teachers. The food was excellent
and it was a great opportunity to renew old acquaintances. Sister Rosalie attended, and so did Bishop Fiorenza,
who talked about the great need for more vocations to the priestly and
religious life.
Later, the Essay Contest winners had their pictures taken with Bishop
Fiorenza and our Associate Chaplain, Sister Monica.
The Spring Leadership Conference was held at St. Mary's Seminary. The
turnout was large, and everyone enjoyed the continental breakfast. The
new District Governor, Cliff Peterson, introduced his
ideas on how to increase and maintain momentum for the clubs, and plans
for new clubs. Later, specialized
meetings
were
conducted
for the officers with the goal of enhancing their knowledge and performance. Alicia
Casmus described the proper way to conduct a presentation at
one of the meetings.
June 2003
The Explore Program for senior high students was held at St. Mary's
Seminary.
General Information
Hector Ibarra noted that a good source
for seminarians is Mexico, where several eligible candidates are ready
to
enter the seminary if funding
for their tuition can be found.
One thought about foreign seminarians is that there is a cultural and
language barrier that has to be overcome. English classes would solve
the language problem; the cultural barrier could only be solved by cultural
assimilation in this country.
Ideas on fund raising
to help finance seminary tuition were discussed. One thought presented
by Hector Ibarra was to start a car donation program.
Vehicles no longer needed could be donated to those businesses that collect
these vehicles and a percentage of the profit earned would be given back
to the club.
Another idea presented
by Jerry
Schrader and Tim Healy was to have a
chili cook-off. The general idea would be to have chili chefs enter a
contest for the best chili in different categories. The contest entry
fees, after expenses, would be given to the bishop to cover seminarians'
tuition costs. Initial financial results were expected to be small, however
growth in popularity of this event year after year could produce significant
revenue. This idea will be explored further to get a better picture of
what is required to run this kind of event.
Future Events
The new Calendar of Events will soon contain the activities for the
balance of the year.
