Both Abigail and Jovanka are members of CREW, a leadership program at St. Peter’s in Danbury. Teens who are a part of CREW have been volunteering on Thursdays to help make sandwiches for Dorothy Day House, and on Sundays to help with registration for next year’s classes. Every other week, some of St. Peter’s high school and middle school teens participate in a private Mass just for them. Twenty teens are allowed to be present, and some are involved in the liturgy as lectors and ushers.
Below, they share their experiences:
Abigail Barahona
I am Abigail Barahona a Senior at Danbury High School. Being a part of the CREW leadership program here 
at St. Peters has brought so much positivity into my life. It has helped me build a stronger relationship with God along with giving me the opportunity to help those around me. CREW is an excellent leadership program that gathers teens together to help and serve others along with helping each one grow in their faith. Being on CREW you learn and develop leadership skills that not only are applied to CREW and the parish, but also on a normal basis in our everyday lives. I personally have learned a lot about my faith about myself thanks to being a part of CREW and by giving back to others. I enjoy being a part of this leadership program because I was able to find teenagers like me who share the same interests in learning about God and giving back to our community. These past months have been hard for everyone but we still wanted to give back to our community so we gathered together to make sandwiches for the Dorothy Day Kitchen. Everyone lent a helping hand, making the process so much faster and efficient. Some of us were in charge of spreading mayonnaise on to pieces of bread while others were in charge of adding cheese and ham. Once the sandwiches were made, we brought over to Dorothy Day and were able to provide meals for over 80 people!
Jovanka Ordonez
I’m Jovanka Ordonez a Freshman Danbury High School. I recently joined CREW, a leadership program at St. Peter’s Church. In this leadership program, we are focused on growing in our faith and helping others. We work with students and we often do service projects in our hometown of Danbury. CREW has helped me grow in with my faith and grow closer to God and have better leadership skills. In CREW we do lots of bible studies and ZOOM meetings. I feel that CREW has made my faith grow. We talk weekly about our faith and how we can improve our spiritual lives. I enjoy helping others because it makes me feel good about myself. I like seeing others happy and I feel that it brings deep joy to my life when I am able to bring that joy to others. In this leadership program, we also do service projects. Recently, we made sandwiches for Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen here in Danbury. There were five stations: putting mayonnaise on a slice of bread, two where you added cheese and ham, and one where you put another slice of bread and package it together. All together we made over 80 sandwiches for those in need!
