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JUNE 13-26, 2015 | DENVER CATHOLIC
T
his year's fun and faith-filled
Guppy Fest focused on spread-
ing the faith to a smaller group of
youth.
The June 6 youth rally at St. Thomas
More Parish in Centennial hosted a day of
inspirational talks, Mass, games, skits and
faith sharing for some 200 middle-school
students.
In previous years, since its roots in
Denver's World Youth Day 1993, the rally
was open to all students in sixth through
12th grades. This year the gathering
invited middle-school youth and asked
high school students to lead the rally,
touted as one of the longest-running
Catholic summer youth programs in the
Archdiocese of Denver.
"We had a lot of high school kids who
ran it and helped us out a lot," said David
Tschumper, director of youth ministry
at St. Thomas More Parish. "We ended it
with the dance, bingo and karaoke. It was
just a good spirited day."
Father Randy Dollins, moderator of the
curia and vicar general, gave the keynote
talk at the rally. Tschumper said he incor-
porated the theme of this year's rally, "Be
Thou My Vision," that included the story
of Jesus' healing of the blind man.
Youth acted out the biblical story and
performed skits. They also participated
in games, danced to music, sang praise
music and watched videos.
Tschumper said more middle-school
youth have been attending the rally,
dubbed "Guppy Fest" in 1994 as a con-
tinuation of World Youth Day's "Fish
Dance," designed to cater to a smaller
group of Christian youth. Today's rally
draws youth from several Denver-area
parishes and is held yearly at St. Thomas
More.
Guppies pool for
spirited faith day
Around the Archdiocese
BY NISSA LAPOINT
303-715-3138 | nissa.lapoint@archden.org
www.twitter.com/Nissa_LaPoint
