"The Apprentice" at St. John's

Remember that Donald Trump's show on NBC? Well, St. John the Evangelist, where I am assigned this summer, has its own version and I am the one and only participant this show. This is why I see it that way:

Goal:
- Organizing one or two youth events for the parish's youth. This has to happen before I leave, July 31.

Settings:
- Parish is made up of:
* 50% Hispanics, speak very little English, the largest number of youth (Mass in Spanish)
* Caucasians and African Americans
* Vietnamese, Filipinos, other Asian nationalities
* Nigerians
* Haitians (celebrated Mass in French or Creole)
- Many youth go to the PreK-8 parochial school; many parishioners work in that school.
- No youth minister, no youth group.
- Groups in existence at Church: Knights of Peter Claver (English, men, women, youth), Knights of Columbus (English, men), Spanish Mass choir.
- Most people travel out of town in summer, school faculty and staff are on vacation in summer.
- Few live in the close distance to the Church.

Challenges:
- I speak no Spanish nor French
- Fr. Hernan, the Spanish speaking priest is on vacation June 15 - July 15
- Fr. Ed, the pastor, also speaks Spanish, is on vacation July 16 - August 12
- No budget has been set for youth group
- Between the different ethnic groups, there has been no collaborative projects, all separated (though there is no animosity whatsoever among them; they get along just fine)

History of youth-related activities/efforts in the past:
- Summer 2008, a seminarian tried to organize a youth day/youth retreat. Very few showed up.
- There have been some fundraisers for youth events, people tend to support those, but the profits were not particularly high.
- Someone has tried to have the parish's youth come to use the Church and School facilities for sports, games, but there were no commitment from the adults to help supervising, nor the participation from the youth themselves.


I have less than 2 months, with no budget, to make a youth event happen.

The show is now on.