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CYO teens ring doorbells for annual Amazing Race

By Sue Sitter - | Oct 30, 2021

Submitted Photo Teens with the Little Flower Parish CYO load tables with cleaning and paper products for their Amazing Race Oct. 20.

It was a little early for Halloween, but local teens rang doorbells and took handouts from homes all over Rugby the evening of Oct. 20.

The teens were members of Little Flower Parish’s Catholic Youth Organization participating in the CYO’s annual Amazing Race. This year, members collected paper and cleaning products for the St. Vincent De Paul Society and the Pierce County Food Pantry.

Before the teens went out, they gathered at the church for Mass and then ate supper in the church basement.

Kiara Larson, who serves as the CYO’s vice president, explained the youth would divide into five groups, with each group assigned a section of Rugby for their collection drive. The teams were named for St. Maria Goretti, St. Therese the Little Flower, Blessed Giorgio Frassati, St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Blessed Carlo Acutis.

Larson said the youth would visit neighborhoods and ring doorbells to ask for paper towels and cleaning items. “There are clues along the route that go to a jackpot of items that will be given to you if you get all the clues,” Larson said.

The “jackpot stashes” of items could boost each team’s total to help them win the race.

CYO Advisor Lisa Volk said, “Deb Black from the St. Vincent DePaul Society came and gave us a speech about the society itself and the needs of the community. For whatever reason it is, the needs in our community right now are for toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, dish soap and laundry detergent. So, we’re specifically focusing on those items.”

Volk added, “The St. Vincent DePaul Society teams up with the Pierce County Food Pantry. They will collect all these items tonight, dropping them off at the food pantry, but St. Vincent DePaul Society will be dropping them off to the community in order of financial need, or hardship or, for example, if they’ve lost a job or had a death in the family.”

“Or, if they have a disability or not stable places to live,” added CYO President Amber Selensky. “They worked a lot with people who lived in hotels.”

Volk added, “The jackpot stash is sponsored by some of our local businesses.”

Volk said the caches of cleaning items could be hidden anywhere from a under a bush to the back of a traffic sign.

Volk said she also gave Rugby police officers a heads-up about the activity so they would understand why “kids are running around” and taking bundles of paper towels and other items from behind stop signs.

Alec Wolf, who serves as historian for the CYO, said the race serves as a way to carry out the group’s mission “to be Christ’s Hands on Earth.”

Wolf said the CYO “has three S’s -spiritual, service and social. So, us racing around town would be our social, and collecting the items and donating them was our service, and spiritual was Mass (before the event).”

“And the saints,” Volk added.

“I think it really shows we’re Christ’s hands on earth because we’re at people’s doors and we’re here with the Catholic Church collecting things and it shows people we are out there doing things and trying to make the community better. I think that really pushes it out there, too,” said Katelyn Duchscher, the CYO’s Balta representative.

“That’s our general motto, then our theme this year is “Two feet of love in action, so that’s kind of cool because we’re out running around town, using our feet,” Larson said.

“The message is though you can be faithful and you know there’s people in need, it’s a really big service when you actually do something about it. So, it’s putting our feet in action and being Christ’s hands on earth and this makes this service unique because when we’re around the community, we’re not simply just praying for these poor people; we’re doing something that can actually help them,” Selensky said.

Mary Ann Kraft said she was excited to return to the race after missing last year’s when she was quarantined. “It should be really fun. I’m excited to do this with everyone and serve the community in some way.

Junior High Representative Carter Teigen said he hadn’t participated in the Amazing Race before, “but I heard it’s really fun. I’m looking forward to it.”

“It’s always really fun at the end to see how much we collected. Last year, when we collected food, we decided to weigh it all to see how much we got in pounds. It’s just really nice to see it actually means something,” Selensky noted.

After the race, Volk said, “We ended up with 2 pick up loads of collected items. We had amazing results for an amazing race. Thank you so much to all of the community and everyone who participated.”

Volk said the Pierce County Food Pantry distribution is the third Monday of every month, 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the armory. “Special Christmas baskets will be distributed Dec. 18. Contact Pierce County Social Services at 776-5818 for more information,” Volk added.