Teenagers from a Conventual Franciscan Parish

Volunteer in Costa Rica

The volunteer group from Blessed Sacrament Parish

in Burlington, North Carolina

This summer 18 teenagers and 4 chaperones from the Conventual Franciscan Blessed Sacrament Parish in Burlington, North Carolina flew to San Jose, Costa Rica for a week of volunteering at the Cristo Rey Center. A school as well as a daycare in an impoverished section of town, the Cristo Rey Center has grown in the last two years. This growth stems from the construction of a new building, which now serves as its base. The building has excellent classroom facilities and many new toys for the youngest children who stay there.

San Jose, Costa Rica

Development is not finished at the Cristo Rey Center because the need to help the San Jose community continues to be great. In the future the center is looking to build a church and start a farm – all across the street from its main building. The young volunteers from Blessed Sacrament helped to bring the building of the church and the starting of the farm a few steps closer to reality. They helped to clear a stack of bricks from the future church’s property and cleared the land where the farm will one day flourish. During inclement weather, the young North Carolinians cleaned toys, unloaded a delivery truck, and assisted in the care of some of the children. On one evening they served dinner to the poor in the city’s Red Zone district. The lines of the hungry and poverty stricken were longer than ever before.