Mission Drive 2016

Mar 14 2016

For the past three years, a group of Jesuit students and chaperones has traveled to Nicaragua for a week to serve the destitute in the city of Matagalpa. As pictured on the homepage of the website during the summer of 2015, they have provided assistance and support at the local hospital, prison, town dump, and youth center.

This spring, the entire Jesuit student body will be lending its support to that community. Mission Drive 2016, launched Monday (March 14) at Convocation by Michael Miller ’09, is dedicated to assisting Matagalpa.

Miller, Jesuit’s Director of Community Service, set a goal of $12,000 raised by this year's Mission Drive. (Last year’s record total was $10,987, for The Lord’s Ranch in El Paso, Texas.) Miller said the funds this year will go toward three things: a chapel for Matagalpa’s prison, operation of the local youth center (La Casita), and to send six Matagalpan youths to World Youth Day in Poland this summer to see Pope Francis.

When in Nicaragua, Jesuit’s contingent stays with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and the Friars have been Jesuit’s conduit to the Matagalpa region. Two weeks ago, Fr. Augustine Conner, CFR, one of the Friars in Nicaragua, spoke at Convocation at Jesuit.

Miller said Mission Drive funds will be raised multiple ways: via a penny drive in the cafeteria, through classroom donations each Thursday, and with $5 entries into an NCAA Tournament basketball pool, for which all proceeds go to the Mission Drive.

The theme for this year’s Mission Drive is “Whatsoever you did to the least of my brethren, you did unto me,” from Matthew 25:40, which is written on one of the large banners inside St. Anthony’s Chapel. Students who have taken a mission trip to Nicaragua are the leaders of this year's drive.

The Mission Drive dates back to the 1930s at Jesuit. This year’s drive culminates on April 22 with Mission Drive Day, beginning with a music concert in St. Anthony’s Chapel followed by fun activities and fundraising events.

Click here for a photo slideshow of Jesuit's Mission Trip to Nicaragua last summer.

View photos below from Matagalpa connected to Mission Drive 2016:

The youth center in Matagalpa -- La Casita