St. Demetrius Ukrainian Catholic Church

09/05/2026

08/15/2026

☀️❤️ The Final Day of Our Summer Camp — Two Parishes, One Family!❤️☀️

Today we completed a truly special week of our Summer Camp — a camp that brought together St. John the Baptist and St. Demetrius Parishes. Two parish families came together as one family for the good of our children— to pray, learn, play, create, laugh, and grow together in faith. 🙏

As every day, we began with the most important thing — the Divine Liturgy. ⛪️ Afterward, we enjoyed a snack, our morning warm-up, and officially began our final day full of energy and smiles!

One of the highlights was our Great Game — Capture the Flag!🚩 The teams competed to capture their opponents’ flags, showing great teamwork, strategy, and plenty of enthusiasm.

After all that activity, we were certainly ready for another delicious lunch lovingly prepared by Stephanie Klym. 🍽️❤️

Our final catechesis was dedicated to Blessed Omelian Kovch and the message “Love Everyone.” We learned that a Christian should not divide people into “us” and “them.” We are called to love, help, and protect every person — just as Blessed Omelian did, even in the most difficult circumstances. ✝️❤️

Then came another creative workshop! The children continued working on the wooden crosses they had decorated with grain mosaics the day before, this time adding beautiful wood-burned designs. ✝️🔥 Each cross became a unique memory of our camp.

And, of course, we had to capture this week in a special photo! 📸 All our campers gathered together wearing the T-shirts they had designed and painted themselves on Wednesday.👕🎨 What a wonderful memory to take home!

We also had time to relax together and watch a movie 🎬 before reaching the exciting conclusion of our camp — the presentation of certificates and prizes to our participants and Great Game winners!🏆🎉

But a camp like this is never the work of one person. It happens because many people give their **time, talents, generosity, and love**.

❤️ A heartfelt THANK YOU to Stephanie Klym for preparing our wonderful meals throughout the camp, and to Carol Basaraba for helping her.

❤️ Thank you to our wonderful animators — Sofia, Sofia, and Iryna — for their energy, patience, smiles, and for being there for our children throughout these days.

🎨 Thank you to Lilia and Christina for preparing and leading our creative workshops and giving the children such beautiful memories to take home.

🎶 Thank you to Christian and Jerry for helping make our Divine Liturgies beautiful through their singing.

🎭 Thank you to Emily Klym for the tickets that gave our animators the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful evening at the musical in Medora.

🍽️ Thank you to our generous benefactor **Adriana** for providing dinners for the girls.

And our sincere thanks to **all the parishioners, parents, volunteers, benefactors, and friends** who helped in so many different ways. Some contributions were big, some small, some visible and some behind the scenes — but **every one of them helped make this camp possible.** ❤️

Most of all, **THANK YOU to our children!** Your laughter, questions, prayers, creativity, friendship, and energy filled our parishes with life this week. 😊

This camp was about much more than games and activities. It showed us what can happen when **two parishes become one family and work together for their children.**

St. John the Baptist & St. Demetrius — two parishes, one faith, one family. ❤️⛪️❤️

May God bless every child, every family, and every person who helped make these days so beautiful.

Thank you for an unforgettable Summer Camp! Until next year! 🙏☀️❤️

08/14/2026

☀️ Day 4 of Our Summer Camp! 🙏🇺🇦🇺🇸

Our fourth day began with the Divine Liturgy, putting God first and thanking Him for another beautiful day together. ⛪️ After a tasty snack, we proudly sang the Ukrainian and American National Anthems 🇺🇦🇺🇸, followed by a fun morning warm-up to get everyone moving!
Then it was time for lots of outdoor fun — games on the grass, running, laughing, and enjoying time together. ☀️⚽️ After all that activity, everyone was ready for another delicious lunch! 🍽️❤️
Our catechesis today was about Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, a courageous leader of our Ukrainian Catholic Church who remained faithful to God and his Church even through many years of imprisonment and suffering. His life reminded us to stay strong in our faith and never give up. 🙏
The children also enjoyed a creative craft workshop, decorating wooden crosses by carefully gluing different grains and seeds onto them. 🌾✝️ Everyone created their own beautiful and unique cross to take home.
Afterward, we relaxed together and watched Minions 🍿🎬, and then brought the energy back with our favorite bansy, dancing, laughter, and fun! 💃🎶
And just like that, another wonderful camp day came to an end — filled with prayer, faith, friendship, creativity, and lots of happy memories. ❤️
Glory to God for another blessed day! 🙏

Thanks to the generosity of Emily Klym, our wonderful camp animators had the opportunity to spend a special evening in Medora and enjoy the beautiful musical celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary! 🇺🇸🎶✨

After days filled with helping, playing, and caring for our campers, it was a wonderful opportunity for our animators to relax, spend time together, and enjoy this memorable performance.

A very special and heartfelt THANK YOU to Emily Klym for making this beautiful evening possible! ❤️ Your kindness and generosity are greatly appreciated by all of us! 🙏

08/13/2026

☀️ Day 3 of Our Summer Camp!❤️🙏

Our third day began, as always, with the Divine Liturgy, praying together and thanking God for another beautiful day. ⛪️ Afterward, we enjoyed a tasty snack and headed outside for some fun — soccer and other games! ⚽️😊

Today’s catechesis was about Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and his important message: “Do Good.” ❤️ The children learned that our faith becomes visible through simple acts of kindness, love, and helping others.
After another delicious lunch, we had a very special activity — a T-shirt painting workshop! 🎨👕 Each child decorated their own T-shirt, creating something colorful and unique. We then left our shirts to dry so they’ll be ready for us to enjoy!

A very special and heartfelt THANK YOU to Lilia Jessop, who planned and prepared the entire workshop and purchased all the supplies needed for the children. ❤️ Your time, generosity, and creativity made this activity possible and brought so much joy to everyone! 👏🎨
And, of course, we finished the day with lots of energy — dancing bansy, laughing, and playing our big group game together!💃🎉
Another beautiful day filled with prayer, friendship, creativity, learning, kindness, and joy!

Glory to God for everything! 🙏❤️

08/12/2026

☀️ Day 2 of our Summer Camp — another wonderful day! 🙏

We began our second day in a very special way — with the Proskomedia, the preparation of the Holy Gifts before the Divine Liturgy. The children had a unique opportunity to come closer, watch, and learn what happens during this beautiful part of the service — something they normally don’t get to see. ⛪️
After the Divine Liturgy, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast and snack, and then Rudy Syminow generously drove us to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. 🚌🏞️ We had an amazing time exploring God’s beautiful creation and were excited to see wild horses and bison! 🦬🐎
Of course, no camp day would be complete without another delicious lunch lovingly prepared by Stephanie! 🍽️❤️ As always, the food was wonderful, and everyone enjoyed a tasty meal together. A huge thank you to Stephanie for taking such great care of us and keeping all our campers well fed and happy!
We also had a short catechesis about St. Volodymyr the Great. 👑✝️ The children learned how his choice to follow Christ changed not only his own life, but the lives of an entire nation. We remembered an important lesson: “Choose God — one good choice can change many lives.” 🙏
A very special thank you to Rudy Syminow, who also treated everyone to ice cream after the park! 🍦❤️
With happy hearts (and plenty of ice cream 😊), we headed to Medora for trampoline fun! The kids jumped, laughed, played, and had a fantastic time together.
It was a beautiful day filled with prayer, learning, nature, friendship, and lots of joy! 🙏☀️
Thanks be to God for another blessed day of camp! ❤️

08/11/2026

First Day of Ukrainian Saints Camp ☀️🇺🇦

Our first day began in the best way possible — with *Divine Liturgy and prayer together*. After breakfast, the children got to know one another, chose their teams, came up with team names, and had fun **creating and painting their team flags**.

During catechesis, we learned about **St. Olga of Kyiv** and talked about what it means to seek God and His light in our lives. ☀️

We also had a special **prosphora-baking workshop**, where the children learned about the bread used for the Divine Liturgy and had a chance to see how it is prepared. It was a beautiful way to connect faith, tradition, and hands-on learning.

Later, the children enjoyed our big game, **“Traffic Light,”** with lots of movement, laughter, and teamwork. After all that activity, everyone was happy to enjoy a **delicious lunch prepared by Stephanie**. ❤️

And of course, there was also plenty of **music, dancing, fun, and new friendships**!

We thank God for such a wonderful beginning to our camp and everyone who helped make this first day so special. **There is much more to come!** 🙏☀️🇺🇦