Rocky Railway Vacation Bible School Was “Full Steam Ahead” for 2021 Program

During summer 2021, it was “all aboard” for the St. Mark Rocky Railway Vacation Bible School!

This year’s Vacation Bible School program had a different look, with families attending together from 6:30-8:30 p.m., June 14-16 under the big tent on the church campus. Volunteer Director Susan Hein, along with Jennifer Cahak and Jackie Boos, planned a boxcar full of fun activities all geared to the message that “Jesus has the power to pull us through hard times.”

The theme had been planned for the 2020 Vacation Bible School program, but when COVID-19 restrictions were put in place, the event was canceled. As planning began for this year, the “Rocky Railway” theme remained, with the setup designed to keep everyone safe. The program also was shortened from five nights to three.

“We thought if we create family spaces and have them stay within that space, we’d bring the materials for all the activities to them,” says Andrea Woolums, St. Mark’s Coordinator of Elementary/Associate Middle School Youth Minister. “In other years, the kids move from station to station, but this year the stations will rotate.

“[The Rocky Railway theme] is such an appropriate message!” she adds. “The Holy Spirit works, with it all about Jesus’s power of pulling us through hard times.”

Each family space was dubbed a “Family Railroad Crossing,” and each family attending received a personalized railroad crossing sign. Activities were directed from the stage in the tent, and each family could respond to activities on the stage by raising the crossing arms on the sign.

“We are making it real personalized and they can have fun and be safe in their space,” Andrea says.

During the three days of Rocky Railway, the message focused on the Catholic Connections — that is, the sacraments.

“We’ve been away from the sacraments over the past year,” Andrea says. “It will be the message of coming back to the Eucharist. This is what got us through the challenges as we come out of the pandemic.”

With the format changes, only 30 teen volunteers were helping — some were busy as the “Fun Engineers.” Each Fun Engineer took care of five families during the games to lead, assist and support them. Other teen volunteers acted out the Catholic Connections in skits on stage, between the Rocky Railway stations that were also held on stage.

Twenty-five adults helped to make St. Mark Rocky Railway possible this summer.

On the last night, our Knights of Columbus Council cooked hot dogs for a picnic.

“They will be putting the hotdogs into dinner bags, according to the diocesan guidelines,” Andrea says. “After the picnic, we’ll watch a slide show from the previous two days and several skits. We really appreciate our Knights of Columbus for their support.”