Totus Tuus — 2025

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2025 Totus Tuus Equation:
Large Group of Students + Great Diocese Missionary Teachers + Remarkable Leadership and Volunteer Team = Overwhelming Success!

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The 2025 Totus Tuus Week was an overwhelming success. 

• Our student group was larger than usual with more than 50 daytime students. 
• The Wichita Diocese the missionary team was excellent.  Thomas, Lucy, Abe, and Lizzy combined leadership and teaching skills, with unlimited energy to keep our kids engaged and enthusiastic.
• Our local leadership included our Director of Religious Education (and Bridget's family) plus a large group of ...
• ... VOLUNTEERS!  Our volunteer group included folks from both parishes, and participating youth as well as several adults.

Activities were centered around St. Francis Church, the St. Francis Parish Hall and the parish lawn.  As usual, the lawn was well watered during the latter part of the week.  It was also fertilized with liberal doses of sugar, syrup, sprinkles, and marshmallows!

​Totus Tuus is Latin for "Totally Yours" It signifies complete dedication to Jesus Christ through Mary. 
Totus Tuus is committed to bringing kids closer to Christ through the Holy Mass, sacraments, prayer and FUN! During the week of July 13 through 19 a team of four Diocese Missionary teachers worked with groups of both younger and older students during a program that included daily Mass, Confessions, religious instruction and plain old (and sometimes exhausting) FUN.

On Thursday and Friday, the fun got wet and messy.  A Totus Tuus tradition is turning a couple of the missionaries into 'sundaes.'  That involves covering the lucky leaders in chocolate, caramel, and strawberry ice cream syrup, marshmallows, sprinkles, cherries and other goodies.  Then an all-out water war breaks out; and when everyone is soaked it is water-slide time.

This year's sundae session took on special meaning for two reasons: 

• As they did last year, our students dedicated the sundae-session to their much-loved friend, and former student Braedin Voorhis. 
• Also, this year our pastor, Father Matt Davied, joined two missionaries to become part of the sundae. 

​After the sundaes were completed, students, missionaries and Father Matt joined together for a loving group photo (Top of page photo may me enlarged).

The following slideshow sums up some of the week's activities.

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HELP!  We Had Lots of Help!

Our Director of Religious Education, Bridget, knows it takes a team to run a week-long event like Totus Tuus.  One of the gratifying things about this year's event was the number of youth helpers who chipped in to:

• Watch over and direct younger kids,
• help clean tables in the hall, carry out trash and reline trash,
• Sweep the floors or mop up small spills and messes.

Our adult helpers this year included members of the Altar Society, parishioners from both churches, and several others who just wanted to be a part of this rewarding event.  

You will see some of the team in this slideshow.  One of them worked so hard he had to take a nap!

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This was only a sample of the volunteer help we saw during a couple of the Totus Tuus days.  We cannot begin to name all of them.  There were many more folks involved.  But Thanks to Father Matt Davied and our DRE 'Family' for putting this week-long event together.  Also, many thanks to the Carters and Grosdidiers who volunteered to house and provide food and laundry service for the diocesan missionaries.