Kick off holidays with Festival of Trees

Published: Thursday, December 3, 2009

HUDSON – The holiday season is in full swing at St. Kathryn Church in Hudson with its fourth annual Festival of Trees on Saturday and Sunday.

The premise is simple: More than 30 theme-decorated Christmas trees will be up for raffle through the weekend, along with 10 festive gingerbread houses. Proceeds from this special event will offset the costs of youth mission trips, which are planned to help others in need each year.

Youth mission trips involve “workcamp” in which youth of the parish travel to a chosen community to assist with a specific project. According to parishioner Deb Freeman, whose children have been involved for some time with workcamp, 2010’s trip will be to Maine to repair and renovate the homes of elderly, low-income and handicap residents.

The cost to each teen is $530 this year, and fundraisers such as the Festival of Trees are held to defray the actual cost for each person who wishes to participate in workcamp.

So far, 36 teens and nine adults are registered for the upcoming mission trip, said Sue Levesque, the youth minister at St. Kathryn.

“Since St. K’s started participating with Group Workcamp, we have served in West Virginia, Illinois, Hollis and Littleton, New York, Montana, Michigan and North Carolina,” Levesque said.

This is Levesque’s 11th year at St. Kathryn, her 29th year in ministry overall and her 21st workcamp.

“I find workcamp to be a powerful experience of Christians of different faith traditions uniting for a common purpose, often discovering we have so much more in common than first perceived,” Levesque said. “Workcamp also is an empowering opportunity for youth to discover what they are capable of accomplishing in God’s name, not only with the homes of low-income residents, but in the lives of the residents they are serving.”

Those they serve are often surprised as well by the young people, according to Levesque.

“Too often, people’s first thoughts of teenagers are negative; they’re rebellious, sarcastic, rude, selfish, inconsiderate and looking for trouble,” Levesque said. “Though that may be true for a few, after experiencing workcamp . . . people will discover that the majority of teens are fun, idealistic, full of promise and hope, and that youth have hearts full of compassion with a desire to serve and make a difference for the better.”

The workcampers have chosen which theme they would like their tree to be decorated in. This year’s themes include tools, music, Italian dinner, sports, arts and crafts, auto supply, princess, truck, pet, candy, family game, blanket, pastries, Chunky’s, college survival, school days, seasonings and many more. There will also be three specialty trees, which include a money tree, a gift card tree and a tree decorated with Swarovski crystals.

The trees will be on display in the church hall, which can be accessed by the double doors in the rear of the church from 2-6 p.m. Saturday and from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday. In addition to viewing the trees, guests can purchase baked goods and visit with Santa.

Levesque said that St. Kathryn in the process of forming a committee of those who are interested in bringing a workcamp to the Hudson area in 2011 and welcomes hearing from anyone who would like to be involved. She may be contacted at 882-7793 or sue.levesque@stkathryns.org.

St. Kathryn Church is at 4 Dracut Road in Hudson.