This Week's Spotlight: Susan Fortunato, Pastor of St. Stephen's Church

Summer time is something most families look forward too. A time to slow down the pace after a busy school year, plan fun activities and excursions for the family. But as the weeks go by, the kids can start to get antsy, constantly looking for new and fun things to do. Fortunately, for the community St. Stephen's Episcopal Church offered a week long Vacation Bible School to the local parishioners and extended the invitation to all in the community even those who don't attend the church. 

"We love it! It gives us the  perfect opportunity to invite our friends, neighbors, and strangers. I invited the daughter of the owner of my favorite vegetable store to come to our church.  We love our church and really want to share the positive energy that is here with all our friends and neighbors," said St. Stephen's Pastor, Susan Fortunato.

St. Stephen's graciously opens the summer bible school to everyone, advertising mainly by word of mouth. Sign up registration was simple, all you had to do was sign up in the book in the lobby of the building. With an open enrollment the number of registrants wasn't clear until the first day.

"We really weren't sure what to expect.  Because we were working with the Diocese we didn't get our week assigned until very late May and so we had pretty conservative goals. I expected 25, I hoped for 30, I dreamed of 40. Up until a week before, that seemed to line up with registration.  By the day VBS started we had almost 50 kids registered and had decided to cap enrollment at 58.  We wound up having to turn people away! We really hated doing that but we had a limited amount of snacks, crafts and staff."

The Church received a grant this year from the Episcopal Diocese of New York, allowing the vacation bible school to have two coordinators, a mother/daughter team made up of Georgia Russell and Janine Schenone. They helped organize, oversee and run the program this summer. 

"Vacation Bible School is a very volunteer intensive enterprise and we simply could not do it without the support of our teenagers.  The counselors, or ship mates, of the groups are children between the ages of 12-14.  All but one are members of the church who are also involved in Youth Group, Christian Education, many serve as acolytes on Sunday morning and some sing in the choir," said Fortunato.

"The leaders of the individual areas of science, crafts, games, and Bible are a combination of adults, college students, and older high school students.  Some of them are assisted by seventh, eigth or ninth graders, but the actual leaders of those groups have volunteered their time to study the curriculum, prepare their stations, and decorate their rooms.  Those leaders are all members of the parish."

Because of the grant the curriculum this summer was more integrated and elaborate than years past.

"There was still a lot for us to do in preparation for the actual week. I recruited the volunteers. Many college and high school students signed up immediately when I announced it. Then it was my job to place the volunteers in the best areas for their skills.  My friend, Captain of Discovery Bay, Gayle McDonald was an invaluable help in actually looking at the staff and saying, 'I think this person would be happier here' or 'They would really work well together.' Jane Stormes, who is a teacher, decided that she wanted to help, but not in a classroom so she was in charge of props for the week and registration for the kids. The kinds of things that are essential to Bible School but happen behind the scenes.  Carol McKenna was in charge of all the snacks for the week.  Because the snacks are complicated and tied to the Bible story, that was another behind the scenes role that helped the week run smoothly."

The children who attended the Bible camp went for five days, three hours a day.

One of the unique facts about St. Stephen's bible school is that it doesn't charge. That's right, it's free. A donation is recommended, but it's a humble request. Fortunato and the parish providing relief to families who are hit with hard financial times. Donations of food and basic necessity items (hygiene and baby items) are welcomed to help stock the food pantry. Or the attendees could donate $10 that went to offset costs and items.

"Well, quite frankly, our primary purpose as a church is to literally give away God's love.  We give away food to the hungry, help for the poor, prayers for the sick, why not fun for kids?  We really want the community to understand that we are here to serve you," said Fortunato when asked why they don't charge for the Bible School. "Of course, we have costs and people are free to donate toward those costs but the most important gift we can share is the love for God and we think vacation Bible school is a great way to communicate that."

Fortunato teaches that as Christians, we believe as St. Francis says, 'It is in giving that we receive.' And that captures the true essence of this community.