This year, the Campus Ministry team took a different approach to their annual retreat. One of the main events, by the suggestion of one of the group’s leaders, Mrs. Michalski, was going to the Garwood Escape Rooms in Garwood, New Jersey. However, this was not where their day began. At 8:20 AM on Thursday, September 12th, the group, comprised of select students from both 11th and 12th grade, went into the chapel for about an hour. During this time, Mr. Gordon, another leader of the group, spoke to the students about the upcoming year, focusing on the “fire” that ignites each and every one of them to be Campus Ministers. Students then spent some time brainstorming ideas for the upcoming year, specifically in terms of potential fundraisers and charities the group will support. At around 9:30 AM, when the time in the chapel had come to an end, the group departed for the Garwood Escape Rooms. 

The Garwood Escape Rooms was suggested for a number of reasons, but mainly in order to improve teamwork, patience, and a variety of other skills that the Campus Ministers will be using throughout the 2019-20 school year. The group was placed into about 6 teams, each with a different room to complete (all of the rooms had different themes). Each group was given an hour in their individual escape room. If they escaped in this time, they were successful. If not, they failed (but they still learned valuable lessons, of course). During this time, each team was forced to work within their group in order to find clues, solve riddles, and eventually, hopefully, escape. All but two teams were able to escape before running out of time. This part of the trip was definitely a favorite for most if not all of the Campus Ministers as it put a fun spin on a traditional teambuilding activity. 

Following the escape rooms, the group took a more serious tone as they headed to 12:00 PM mass at Saint Vincent Martyr Church in Madison, NJ. Here, they were welcomed by Fr. George Hunt, pastor at the church, who presided over their mass. When the mass ended, the students headed to the rectory for lunch, courtesy of St. Vincent Martyr. The students were given a choice of a variety of different sandwiches, chips, cookies, drinks, and more, all generously set up by staff from the rectory office. After enjoying lunch for about an hour, the group took a more serious tone once again as they headed back into the church to hear Fr. George Hunt speak. Here they heard Fr. Hunt speak about many of the virtues they had begun learning at the escape room and ones which they heard in the mass they had attended only a couple hours earlier: patience, teamwork, problem-solving, communication, decision-making, planning, organizing, and more. Fr. Hunt also spoke at length on the power of prayer and how important of a role it must take in people’s lives, especially the lives of Campus Ministers. On this topic, he gave the students a prayer card and spoke about different steps in which they should participate while praying, namely gratitude, awareness, significant moments, peace, freedom, others, and finally, an Our Father. This prayer process is something Fr. Hunt urged the Campus Ministers to follow at least once a day, walking them through it to provide utter clarity for the group. Following this experience in Saint Vincent Martyr Church, the students went to the bus and headed home, but not without their increased knowledge of prayer and all the important virtues they had learned and developed throughout the day.