TYME OUT Blogs!

I just have to say that I have so much fun exploring and playing around with our website.  Not to brag, but I feel that our website and what we are offering on the website is getting better and better.  Thanks to the contributions of many, including the staff at TYME OUT, Mike R. (one of our great volunteers and supporters), and the team at Ocreative Design Studio in Oconomowoc, our website is moving in a positive direction.

I actually bought a new book called HTML, XHTML, and CSS All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies.  I can’t wait to start reading it—it’s over 900 pages of information to web design.  

Confirmation Retreats are a mixture of small group, large group and individual activities.  I would like to spend a little time talking about an individual activities that usually ends up on the evaluation of a Confirmation retreat as “The most significant part of the retreat.”

We ask the youth to take some time to look at the creed which we profess every week at mass.  The words are familiar to them, but they and we do not necessarily really think about the words.  We then give them the opportunity to write their own creed statement.  The pictures I have included are students from St. Rose/St Mary Clintonville.  They could be found all throughout the building composing their thoughts and making sure they said what they needed to say.  Some found that quiet space under a table, or sitting in a bean bag or out in the hallway.  Wherever it was, it was holy ground.

As a retreat director, we all feel honored to be on retreat with the youth and realize the importance of this connection with their faith that the confirmants feel.  It truly is a holy time.

There are other times when the youth have an opportunity to be off on their own reflecting.  This is not something they get a chance to do everyday.  I am glad we can provide this time for them.

Peace,

Margie

3 easy no cost ways to help TYME OUT financially!

We at TYME OUT are continually looking for new ways to raise money.   

I just became aware that Pick n Save and Piggly Wiggly offer 1% of gross receipts to non-profits.

1) If you have a Pick n Save card all you have to do is go to any store and let them know you wish your portion of their generous proceeds to go to TYME OUT Youth Minister Center and give them this number.  860850 

2) We need to collect Piggly Wiggly Hartland and Oconomowoc receipts to receive their donation.  We will have a bucket labeled Piggly Wiggly in the front office, or you can hand them to any staff member or mail them in.

3) Another easy way to help is to use Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine.  We get a penny every time you do a search!  In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 900 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will get donated to TYME OUT.  You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation comes to us!  Here’s the web site — http://www.goodsearch.com/?charity=878308.  

Thank you for all you do for TYME OUT.

Kathy Wisnefski

I wasn’t sure what to BLOG about this week, so I decided that I’ll blog about my two favorite things:  camp and volleyball.

Let’s start with the non-TYME OUT related topic—volleyball.  I just came back from coaching my club team—Lightning Boys 13s team—at the Gateway Boys Festival in the St. Louis area.  My team struggled a bit, but I’m still happy with their performance and their ability to play well against 14s teams.  The hardest part of the trip was the six hour ride.  Today and tomorrow, at TYME OUT, I get to see some of my former players who now go to Catholic Memorial.  It’s always fun to see them and talk to them about what they’re doing since I haven’t coached them now in three years.

Well that’s all for volleyball…now let’s move on to camp.  I’m very excited about our enrollment numbers, thus far.  As of today, we have ten campers enrolled for the summer of 2009.  Last year, we didn’t get our first enrolled camper until very late-February or early-March…and we didn’t have ten campers until April.  So, basically, we’re four months ahead of the past.  I hope this continues to be the direction that our enrollment will take, and that we won’t struggle to keep all nine of our camps in operation this summer.

If you read our BLOG and you know of middle school children who might want to come to camp, please refer them to us (or us to them).  We are especially looking to see large numbers of campers at both Camp PraiseTYME and Young Catholic Stewards Camp.

If you read our BLOG and you know of middle school children who might want to come to camp, please refer them to us (or us to them).  We are especially looking to see large numbers of campers at both Camp PraiseTYME and Young Catholic Stewards Camp.

Wednesday night we had our wonderful event called TYME OUT of the Cold, and it sure was.  During this week of bitterly cold weather, people took the chilly journey of leaving their warm homes to come to the inviting Caribbean theme of TYME OUT of the Cold.  We had some awesome performers.  We had John King, Ben & Liz Brzeski, & Andrew Gallop & friends.  All of these performers really helped to make the event worthwhile.  They kept the music up-beat and fun to help us forget about those winter blues.  We also had a delicious bake sale which the women of the Women’s Prayer luncheon so generously took the time to bake.  Let me tell you, whoever made the banana bread, it’s delicious; and the brownies with powdered sugar on them, my husband has already finished the whole plate of them.  The event is a laid back way for people to come and learn more about TYME OUT.

If you haven’t had the chance to attend one of these events, I would highly recommend it.  There’s fantastic music, scrumptious food, and yummy drinks for you to enjoy while listening to the musicians play.  There’s also some crazy entertainment from the staff as well.  So be prepared to laugh a little.  We will be having one in the near future so check the TYME OUT website for the date.  Thank you to all who did come!  We’ll see you next time.

Smiles,

Lea Rosenberg
Retreat Director