Training the Team: Run for Vocations

On my first day of my summer assignment at St. Andrew Apostle in Silver Spring, the pastor, Fr. Dan Leary, had a meeting with the vocations rep, Maria Bailey, and me about organizing a team for the Run For Vocations that the Archdiocese does every year.  Fr. Dan wanted me to work with Maria to get the parish to join the team, organize fundraisers, and team events, such as training runs and team get-togethers.  Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive about the idea of organizing and leading a team since it was my first big assignment in a parish. 

It took me a while, but after working together, Maria and I were able to organize a recruitment plan.  We had made a few posters, wrote announcements for the bulletin, I was to say a few things after each Mass, and have a signup table to go. The recruitment plan was a complete success and I then had to begin my work reaching out to those who had signed up. After some failed attempts, I finally got a handle of things, and a team slowly began to form! 

Now that I had a team of runners it was time to organize a parish fundraiser.  Maria and I bounced around a few ideas and we finally agreed on having a parish car wash.  My first attempt at organizing this failed and we had to reschedule, but the second time around we were able to get it off the ground.  I don’t think anyone of us could have ever imagined the kind of turn out we got for the car wash and the money we were able to raise.  Quoting one of our volunteers, “I honestly had my doubts because car washes are so played out.”  I honestly had my doubts as well, but the Lord provided and broke through our doubts making this a very successful fundraiser.  Since going back to seminary, it has been difficult, but we were able to come together as team to train and have time to bond as a team on a couple of weekends.

I cannot express the amount of gratitude I have for all 19 of our runners from St. Andrew Apostle.  I have personally learned so much from this project Fr. Dan handed to me on my first day at the parish.  The biggest take away is the importance of community and providing these opportunities for communities to grow and develop. Through the Run For Vocations, a small community has been formed around vocations to the priesthood and praying for seminarians.  The goal of the priest is to do the same thing on a grand scale in the parish, to provide opportunities for the community and families in the parish to come together in Christ, leading them to salvation.  That is what a shepherd does for his flock, what a priest does for his parish, and what I tried to help do for my team by preparing them to run for vocations! 

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