Girls with Grace

SANDUSKY — Sandusky Central Catholic School students are growing their faith through friends and fun. With the help of Sue Wehner, fourth-grade girls at the school have a new club to join: Girls With Grace. Sue is the mother of fourth-grade student Addelyn Wehner along with four graduates of the school. She is the club's volunteer student activity coordinator. Through this club, girls can gather and learn about their faith, Sue said. They also gain a sense of worth in the eyes of God and build friendships. "I see a rising need in the lives of our girls to be taught on a heart level about God's unconditional love for them and to help them develop their true identity as beloved daughters of God," Sue said. The girls learn how to live with their faith through virtues, saints and scriptures that are relevant to them while also having fun and building relationships. The club meets twice a month, most recently this past Tuesday for its third meeting. Each meeting has different planned activities and lessons for the girls to learn. "Each meeting, Girls With Grace focuses on one moral or theological virtue," Sue said. "Virtues are given by God as special graces to help us live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Students share perspectives Over the past two meetings, the club has invited two St. Mary's seniors, Gianna Pelz and Kassidy Lucas, to come share their perspectives of faith and love of neighbor. They also discussed two saints who connected to their lessons and completed faith-based crafts and games. One of the activities several of the girls — Annabelle Dillinger, Addie Dorsey and Gianna Benedict — said they enjoyed was sharing words of affirmation. The students sat in a circle, passed around papers with their names on them and wrote positive words to everyone. Dillinger said her other favorite part of the club is the crafts because her mom helps with them and there is always something new to do. Benedict said her favorite part of each meeting involves the scriptures. "I like to learn about Jesus and his disciples and follow what they say," Benedict said. "I like to be able to know it and get a better relationship with God." Each girl had a different reason for first joining the club: • Dorsey wanted more time to hang out with friends and have fun. • Benedict wanted to learn more about Jesus. • Dillinger said she first joined because her mom was doing it. "(But) once I knew what it was about, I found a million reasons why I would want to join," she added. Goal of the group The most recent meeting invited senior student Julia Mitchell to talk about love of God, St. Agnes of Rome and create paper peony flowers whose abundance of pedals represented the love of God. They also decorated their club binders and prayer jars with bible verses and stickers and donated items for the Heartbeat Crisis Pregnancy Center in Erie County. Before closing in prayer, the girls teamed up for a three-legged race where they worked together and competed for the finish line. "All of the activities are designed to accomplish the goal of the group, which is to provide an opportunity for girls to gather and learn about an aspect of faith while completing crafts and/or service activities that relate to the virtue of the meeting followed by playing a game together with the lesson related to the virtue," Sue said. Sue said the meetings, so far, have been hosted in the elementary library. But, next time they meet, the girls will make their way to the chapel to learn about humility, prayer and being thankful. "I have personally noticed a greater maturity in the way Addelyn thinks of others," Sue said. "I see her excitement when we are participating in an activity where we are giving and blessing others, which is wonderful to see." Looking ahead Sue said she is excited for Girls With Grace's future. "I am confident that this group will grow in many beautiful ways as it has already since our first meeting," Sue said. "Not only from a numbers standpoint but also in terms of the meaningful impact on the girls, their families, schools and community." Sue's plan for herself and the club's future is to continue in her coordinator position and stay with the current members as they enter fifth grade. She hopes the program will expand to other grade levels based on student interest and parent volunteers.