Local teens off to Spain

Zoey Duncan

To attend
World
Youth Day
Three area youths are dedicating the rest of their summer to renewing their faith and exploring Spanish culture.
World Youth Day is a week-long gathering of Catholic youth from around the world, which takes place this year in Madrid, Spain from Aug. 15-21.
Since 1985, people aged 16-35 have made a pilgrimage to a different World Youth Day location every third year.
“The sheer numbers of people there is amazing,” said Joshua Zimmerman, 19, of Emo.
“There’s two million registered, which still doesn’t really compare to the largest one they had, which was in the Philippines and they had five million,” he noted.
“To see that many people that share the same faith as you, it’s a huge renewal and it’s a really big deal.”
Zimmerman, along with Ryan Brady, 17, Thomas LePine, 16, and their spiritual director, Ken Desjardins, will leave this afternoon to spend five days in the Diocese of Plasencia, about 200 km from Madrid, where they will get acclimated with the language and culture before heading to Madrid.
The teens did extensive fundraising for their trip, including spaghetti dinners, holding a concert and barbecue, and selling salsa.
As part of the World Youth Day events, members from the Diocese of Thunder Bay will be hosting a stick hockey game to share a bit of Canadian culture.
The local group plans to return home Aug. 26.