Waterloo Catholic Youth Ministry
Blessed Sacrament : Sacred Heart : St. Edward : Queen of Peace
A Brief History of Waterloo Catholic Youth Ministry The WCYM office, formerly located at St. Mary’s Villa in Waterloo, is now located at Columbus High School. This change has been extremely important to the development of relationships with our high school students
WCYM was formed after local speak out sessions in the early 1990’s indicated a need for youth programs within our metro churches. A task force was formed to design a comprehensive youth ministry program. This group included representatives from each of the Catholic parishes, as well as religious education directors and several pastors.
A search for a program director began in 1996 and the position wasn't filled until November, 1998. Kim Swanson-Huff was hired as director and began work on both high school and junior high youth ministry programs for the four participating parishes: Blessed Sacrament, Sacred Heart, St. John’s, and St. Nicholas.
In July, 1999, St. Mary’s Parish joined WCYM.
During the spring of 2000, the group established a youth center at St. John’s School in Waterloo. The group remained at this site until the school closed in the summer of 2003. At that time, the group moved out to the former Sisters of Mercy convent at the Queen of Peace Evansdale site (formerly St. Nicholas).
In 2001, a coordinator of junior high youth ministry and a ministry assistant were both hired to help expand our program.
In January, 2004, we lost Dave Eilders, our junior high coordinator, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. His position was not replaced. Instead, for the contract years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, only 2 positions remain: Director and Ministry Assistant.
In July, 2005, St. Edward’s Parish joined WCYM, which meant that now each of the Catholic parishes in the city of Waterloo had come under one youth ministry group. The youth center was then moved to St. Edward’s New Life Center for two reasons: First, because it had space available that could accommodate our size group and Second, because the Evansdale site was sold to the Waterloo Public Schools. The new location proved helpful because it was centrally located.
In 2007, our staff expanded to include 2 part-time high school youth ministers and 1 part-time middle school youth minister / office assistant.
After two years at the St. Edward's site, the WCYM youth center also made it's (hopefully) final move to Columbus High School. Now we finally have everything in one place!
At the 2007 NCYC, members of our youth group were part of the workshop "Wake Up to Prayer" with John Angotti and were also invited onto the main stage in front of 20,000 people! For the first time, we also had one of our youth group kids (Megan Moore) as part of the singers/animators.
In 2002, we brought 17 youth and young adults to World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada. In 2005, 14 youth and adult participants attended World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany. Our group represented more than half of the entire delegation from the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
Our youth group has grown from just a few in attendance (1998) to an average of 30-40 high school students coming to youth group each Sunday night during the school year. Our highest attended meeting last year had 45 participants, our lowest had 20.
Fall 1999 saw the beginning of the WCYM Retreat Team. Since then, our team has provided Confirmation retreats for each of our participating parishes, as well as for the Bosco System and St. Patrick’s parish in Fairfax, IA. Each spring we have led the 8th grade retreats for Sacred Heart, Blessed Sacrament, and Queen of Peace. We also added overnight retreats for 7th and 8th grade boys and girls (Girls Night Out and Boys Night Out) to promote self -respect and self-esteem amongst pre-teens. Nearly all our retreat team members have gone on to participate in campus ministry at their respective colleges and universities! In 2005, we converted our Retreat Team to Peer Ministry so that it could include students at all high school levels. The Peer Ministers are still planning retreats, but we are hoping to have them plan other things such as topic nights, youth-led masses, and prayer experiences.
Over the last 10 years, WCYM has participated in the national Souper Bowl of Caring during the Super Bowl football game weekend. Through our efforts, we have been able to donate nearly $20,000 to the Community Meal, Catholic Worker House, and Salvation Army. Other service experiences have included mission trips to Catholic Heart Workcamp in Bluffton, South Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia.
We have attended local CIA’s (Catholics In Action), have gift wrapped for the Cedar Valley Food Bank for the last 6 years, and participated in the Relay For Life to benefit the American Cancer Society for the last 4 years. Additionally, we have worked with Seeds of Hope (organization to help Battered Women in Black Hawk County), ASPIRE (horse program for kids with disabilities), Positive Steps (handicap ramps), Cedar Bend Humane Society, Junior Achievement, Country View, Ravenwood, Western Home, and Iowa Hospice. We have become increasingly involved in the Waterloo Rotary’s Shoebox Project for children in Nicaragua. This project has allowed us to grow in our contributions, starting with us filling just 25 boxes in 2002 to quadrupling that in 2004. For two years in a row, we had the privilege of hosting the Getsemani Children’s Choir from Chinandega, Nicaragua during their Midwestern tour.
Today, the WCYM staff includes High School Youth Minister William Brandle and Middle School Youth Minister Annie Zeets.