Group nears fundraising goal for 2013 World Youth Day

Central Arkansas youth and young adults raising money to attend World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, include Ruby Alvarez (left), Estepha-nia Oliva, Fatima Gomez, Austin Padgett, Holly Hambuchen, Cynthia Solis, Zach Long, Allison Young, Tessie Guillory, Stormy Prewitt, Gabriela Solis and Emily Rideout.
Central Arkansas youth and young adults raising money to attend World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, include Ruby Alvarez (left), Estepha-nia Oliva, Fatima Gomez, Austin Padgett, Holly Hambuchen, Cynthia Solis, Zach Long, Allison Young, Tessie Guillory, Stormy Prewitt, Gabriela Solis and Emily Rideout.

A group of young Arkansas Catholics is nearing a lofty fundraising goal to cover expenses of traveling to the World Youth Day this summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The group, comprised of youth and young adults from across central Arkansas, has been raising money for the trip since August.

Emily Rideout, 23, a spokesperson for the 13-person group, said grassroots fundraising efforts have thus far resulted in about 75 percent of the funds needed to make the trip, scheduled for July 23-28.

“The trip costs around $2,600 per person,” she said. “That adds up to a total of $35,000 for the group. We’re about three quarters of the way there.”

Fundraising activities have included parents night out, where group members babysit children in order to give couples an opportunity for date night, and “flamingo flocking” where for a fee, the group will cover a person’s yard with the familiar pink birds in the dead of night, usually in observance of a birthday or as a joke.

Another successful fundraiser has been sales of the “Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church,” also known as YouCat. Team members have sold the 2011 publication at a number of parish events and were also on hand at the Weekend Extravaganza in Little Rock.

Rideout, a 2011 graduate of the University of Central Arkansas, first heard about World Youth Day through an information meeting held by Father James Melnick, associate pastor for St. Joseph Church in Conway and administrator at St. Andrew Church in Danville.

Rideout was struck by the adventure of the trip, as well as the chance to be a part of the largest Catholic youth gathering in the world.

“I’ve always been interested in going on a pilgrimage,” she said. “The thing I’m most excited about attending World Youth Day is to see the culture of Catholics from all over the world.”

The rigors of the trip are considerable. Much of the ground they will cover will be on foot and despite the cost of attending, accommodations are likely to be relatively spartan.

“It’s going to be a challenging experience on many levels, physically, spiritually and emotionally,” she said. “We’ll be walking several miles a day, sleeping on gym floors. We’re all praying a lot to prepare.”

However none of these challenges or even the language barrier (Rideout knows only rudimentary Spanish and no Portuguese, the official language of Brazil) dampens her enthusiasm.  

 “Nothing is going to take away from seeing the beauty of all the different cultures,” she said. “Being a part of this event, a group that is all youth, shows we stand in solidarity with our faith.”

Rideout grew up in Fort Smith, where she is a member of St. Boniface Church. She became involved with Catholic Campus Ministries at UCA, and by the time she was a senior, she had begun to take various leadership roles. It was through this activism, she said her faith ceased to be something she had been born into and became something she consciously embraced.

“The biggest challenge for young people is trying to stay faithful to your beliefs,” she said. “The world puts so much pressure on young people and often they are singled out for being faithful.”

Rideout credits a strong circle of Catholic friends with helping her grow spiritually, friends made through Catholic Campus Ministries. Since graduation, she has participated in a young adults group sponsored by St. Joseph Church in Conway. About half of the group making the trip to Brazil are friends she made through those organizations.

Besides Rideout and Father Melnick, the group includes Holly Hambuchen, Stormy Prewitt and Allison Young of Conway; Tessie Guillory, Zach Long and Ruby Alvarez of Little Rock; Austin Padgett of Greenbrier and Gabby Solis, Fatima Gomez Solis, Estephania Oliva and Cynthia Solis Plascencia of Danville.

Dwain Hebda

You can see Dwain Hebda’s byline in Arkansas Catholic and dozens of other online and print publications. He attends Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock.

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