StAY Catholic is starting its third year at St. Anthony’s. We are a youth-driven, youth-led ministry for 9th-12th grade students. We meet September through June and take the summer off. Our weekly meetings are on Sunday nights from 7:00-8:30 p.m. at Saint John Paul II Tru-Legacy Center. We have lots of food, games, and a student-led lesson every week. We are currently using the Life Teen book 100 Things Every Catholic Teen Should Know by Mark Hart and Todd Lemieux. Each teenager receives a book and t-shirt. There is no cost to the teenager to be a part of this youth group. We are also an official Life Teen Youth Group, and we will be transitioning in the next couple months to using only Life Teen materials.

Mission Statment

The mission of Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church youth group is to establish a foundation for building Christian character, morals, values, and behaviors in the youth by using creative and innovative methods to excite, inspire, capture, and ignite young people for Jesus. We will strive to achieve this with the full support of Father Andrew and the fusion of youth driven resources of Life Teen and Ascension Press.

Meeting Format

We meet in six-week blocks and then take one week off. Week six is always a social event. Each regular meeting has 30 minutes of social interaction, 30–40 minutes of a lesson, and 20–30 minutes of activity. We start and end with prayer and prayer intentions.

Activities and Highlights from 2017–2018

Here are some of the amazing highlights from 2017–2018:

• Designed StAY Catholic t-shirts
• Attended the Love My Life rally in Raleigh
• Assisted with church receptions in the parish hall
• Secret Santa gift exchange
• Dinners at Brixx, Vito’s, Panera Bread, and Maguro
• Raised $1,156.73 from bake sales to attend a 3-day Steubenville Atlanta Youth Conference, an outreach of Franciscan University

Activities and Highlights from 2018-2019

• United together to honor the passing of Samantha Davis. StAY Catholic will forever be #samanthastrong
• Organized the parish Christmas play which featured teens and several younger members in the parish as characters in the Christmas story
• White Elephant Christmas party at Momma Donna's house!
• Helped Sacred Heart to prepare for Dr. Alan Hunt- a nationally recongnized Dynamic Catholic speaker 
• In charge of hosting Father Mike Schmitz for the St. Anthony's Lenten Mission!
• Raised hundreds of dollars at our annual Easter weekend bake sale fundraiser. Our proceeds went towards the Steubenville summer conference trips
• Roadtrip to Raleigh Cathedral's Life Teen youth group to see how they run their program... pitstop to Insomnia Cookies after!
• Participated in St. Anthony's all night adoration once a month 
• Celebrated our graduating seniors by having a party at Spring Valley lake
• Took two groups of teens to a Steubenville conference in Ohio and one group to a Steubenville conference in Atlanta, Georgia for three separate weekends of Christ centered fun! 

Points of Contact for More Information

Adult Advisors
Donna Boyce (910) 690.0485
Wendy Smyth (910) 315.9145