Vacation Bible Schools Will Bring Adventure, Teaching

It's vacation Bible school time again, and faith communities everywhere are gearing up for their busiest weeks of the year.

Churches like Mary Our Queen, Central Baptist Church and St. Dominic are offering week long children's activities geared towards helping children learn Biblical principals while having fun.

"We do it because we want all kids in the neighborhood to know about God and the joy it can give through Bible lessons and teachings," Central Baptist Youth Pastor Cory Stickles said. "Children matter, and many times in this busy culture that gets forgotten."

Some churches like St. Dominic offer a smaller event during the day for church members and guests. Others like Faith Living Church in Plantsville turn VBA into a town-wide event encouraging any parent to drop their children off from 6-9 p.m.

Faith Living volunteer Lori Danko said the church normally sees 500 children come through the church doors during a typical VBA week. The church basically transforms into an adventure-themed playground of sorts. This year a mountain climbing theme will be used to help kids have fun and hear the gospel.

"The kids really look forward to it, it's great," Danko said. "And we see lots of other kids that come just because they've heard about it from friends, and they've been coming back every year."

About 250 volunteers are needed to make the event a success, said Danko, inluding former member Richard Labbe, who visits from down south every year, just to help out with set contruction. He's been working with youth members like Stephanie Lafollette for the past couple of weeks to prepare for the big event.

"Stephanie's always been here since the beginning, she's a big help," Labbe said. "People are so giving of their time and energy to make this happen. We have two members Joe DeMonte and John Danko who take days off from work to come here and build the sets for us for free. It's amazing."

The event not only entertains and keeps kids active in the summer, but can be a relief to parents as well.

"Parents like it because they can drop their kids off and get some morning errands done and then come back at lunchtime," St. Dominic VBA Director Terry Kamradt said. "We see about 150 kids a day and have about 75 teenage volunteers and 30 adult volunteers."