While playing, children will connect with God
Special to The B.C. Catholic
St. Mary’s Parish will host a Vacation Bible School for school-age children in August.
Dana Dionio, the director of VBS in the parish, said she was inspired to start the program at St. Mary’s because of her experience attending VBS with a friend at a Baptist church.
“It’s really about playing, but of course while you are playing you are connecting with God,” Dionio said.
Researching the history of the program, Dionio said, she discovered the program had first been created in the late 1800s at a Baptist church by a “teacher who wanted to do something fun for the kids in the summer.”
She thinks it was in the early 2000s that the Catholic Church adopted the program. “The Catholic twist that I found was that they add in saints. So each day they learn about a saint.
“I think there is one part they learn about the Beatitudes, they learn about the Holy Spirit; I think a part is learning Bible verses.”
Dionio said she first learned about it at a conference she attended in Los Angeles as one of St. Mary’s PREP teachers. “I was really surprised to hear it was Catholic,” she said, “so I took a brochure.”
She said she prayed about it and then spoke to pastor Father Pierre Leblond, OP. “He was really open to it, because Father Pierre is really big on evangelization.”
Dionio, who has been studying early childhood education, said she hopes the experience will be something children look back on fondly. “If you start children at a young age, around 3, 4, 5, it really builds such an impact in the future.”
The camp will run from Aug. 15-19 in the mornings. More information about the program and registration is available by email: cvbs.stmaryvan@gmail.com.
