Attention all youthworkers, both paid and volunteer! This is your place to find resources, forms for your church to use for events, links to useful websites for your ministry and news of upcoming events for you to rejuvenate and grow. If you have any suggestions for resources etc... please contact Aimee Bostwick in the diocesan office (1-800-DIO-SWVA). If you are a youth worker and currently NOT receiving email updates on events and such from Aimee, please email her at abostwick@dioswva.org

Upcoming events you should mark on your calendars:

April:
13th-May 18th: "Messy-Antics"- the youth of their respective convocations will be gathering to get messy! Youth are asked to bring a towel, change of clothes and their own can of shaving cream (or 2 or 3!). You can see where this is going. Dates, tuines and location can be found on this website.

April 25th-27th: Global Youth Sevice Day- youth are encouraged to engage in some sort of outreach project within their parish, convocation or community. Please refer to the GYSD website for more details www.gysd.net Roanoke Convocation will be cleaning the Roanoke River on Sunday, April 27th. Meet at Rivers Edge park at 2:00 to clean. We will finish our time together by attending "The Gathering" at St. John's Roanoke. We hope to hear wonderful stories of our youth reaching out across the diocese!

May:
2nd-4th: Mass on the Mountain: "Leave Only Footprints" at Cave Mountain Lake outside of Natural Bridge. Hike, gaze at the stars, fellowship with friends and Eucharist on a beautiful vista with our Bishop- life is good! Registration forms can be found at the youth website http://dioswvayouth.wordpress.com This event is for 5th-12th grades. Adult chaperones should be one for every 5 youth from your parish. Registration forms due by Monday, April 28th. Cost of this event is $50.00.

15th: Benefit Concert for New Orleans Mission Trip with Sam Hensley at Christ Church Roanoke. Sam is an energetic, fun-loving musician, well known and loved in the Episcopal Church across the United States. This is truly an all ages show. The concert is free, but we will be taking donations for our mission trip this summer. The evening's activities will begin at 6:00 with dinner followed by a presentation about New Orleans and the concert will begin promptly at 7:00.

16th-18th Spring Youth Event "Cuz It's Curious, Like Curious George". Based on the movie Curious George we will be exploring much like that inquisitive monkey, our faith and friendships. SYE is for youth in 5th-8th grades. Applications are online and the deadline to register is Monday, May 12th. The event will be held at Phoebe Needles. Cost is $75.00. Scholarships available.

Summer Offerings:

Kanuga Youth Week, June 22nd-27th- visit www.kanuga.org to learn about Youth Week. Three conferences run simultaneously for Junior High, Senior High and Adults Who Work with Youth. Members of our diocese will be staffing these events. The deadline to register is Friday, May 9th. Please contact Aimee in the Diocesan office for more info.

Episcopal Youth Event: San Antonio, Texas/July 8th-13th. Youth from across the country and around the world will be gathering on the campus of Trinity University. We will be opening up registration for more youth to join the YMT for this event, after May 15th. Please visit the youth website for updates or contact Aimee in the diocesan office.

Mission Trip to New Orleans, July 26th- Aug. 3rd. Applications are online and are due no later than Monday, May 5th. Space is limited, so please read the instructions on the application carefully. 14th-17 year olds may apply, yet older youth will fill spots first due to limited spaces.

Hosting Bradford Youth Visitors: We are looking for families in the Staunton/Waynesboro area and the Roanoke area to host youth from the Bradford, England diocese. Please contact Aimee for more details.