An Arkansas Foodbank staff member explains to teens attending the Catholic Charities Summer Institute how the packages they’d fill July 27 would benefit people in need. Teens attending C2SI work in service projects throughout the week. (Aprille Hanson photo)

Emily Ellis, 16, (left) and Maggie Williams, 16, both of Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock, slice tomatoes at the Little Rock Compassion Center. (Aprille Hanson photo)

Chloe Ledbetter, 18, of St. John Church in Hot Springs, sorts children’s clothes at the Little Rock Compassion Center thrift store warehouse with Brandon Locknar, 18, of St. Boniface Church in Fort Smith. (Aprille Hanson photo)

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C2SI marks 10 years of summer learning and service

Teens find deeper understanding in weeklong program

Published: August 10, 2017

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson

Olivia Parker, 17, of Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock (left), Grayson Wise, 17, of Immaculate Conception Church in Poteau, Okla., and Veronica Smith, 17, of Christ the King Church in Little Rock, load drink cans into packages at Arkansas Foodbank.

Aprille Hanson

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The service experience in their own words

“I really feel that I can take these experiences and these interactions with these young people back to school with me and take them to prayer and remember them in the tough times at school and share them with my family and friends.”
John Paul Hartnedy, seminarian from Little Rock

“This week has been really incredible as far as getting me out of my comfort zone, especially the homeless shelter; I met some really cool people who told me their stories. And it just made me a more humble person.”
Francesca Rossi, 16, Immaculate Conception Church, Fort Smith

“The reason I have come back to C-Squared three times and what’s spiritually fulfilling about it is working with the homeless and learning more about the community and how much you can do in your home state.”
Nadia Gardner, 17, St. John Church, Russellville

“I love helping people doing this kind of thing. I love being reunited with my friends that I’ve met this past year and I just really enjoy helping people.”
Jacob Semmler, Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Hot Springs Village

“I think of it mostly as the experience ... you meet new people and you do all sorts of things. You can sign up for whatever you would like to do preferably and if that doesn’t work out, there’s always another option you can pick.”
Victor Robles, Blessed Sacrament Church, Jonesboro

“For me it’s been this entire week. It was just a lesson in understanding and a bunch of different lifestyles and how everyone can be homeless. Most people are one paycheck away from being homeless, so it was really eye-opening to me.”
Natalie Curry, 18, Immaculate Conception Church, Fort Smith

Liz Tingquist, diocesan director of youth and campus ministry, said when Catholic Charities Summer Institute (C2SI, pronounced “C-squared-S-I”) in Little Rock started in 2007, “the very first year we weren’t sure” it was going to be an annual tradition. She credited St. Edward Church in Texarkana for bringing 18 of the 20 youth that first year.

This year about 80 ninth through 12th-grade students from 23 parishes throughout the state were represented.

Attendees volunteered at Arkansas Foodbank, Jericho Way and some new locations, like Ferncliff Disaster Relief Warehouse, Little Rock Compassion Center, an inner-city mission for the homeless, and returned to the Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center after several years, Tingquist said.

Cassie Farmer, 16, a parishioner of St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home, attended C2SI for the first time.

“The first day we went to Jericho, which is a place for the homeless people. I really enjoyed talking to them and they enjoyed talking to us, and helping them,” she said.

The teens were personally touched by experiences with the homeless, including Jojo Vazquez, 18, a parishioner at St. John Church in Hot Springs.

“He just told me how he was homeless because he felt like a burden to his family because he was disabled. He had fallen and broken his ACL so he was just talking to me about how not everyone who is homeless is into drugs or going through something like a crime,” Vazquez said. “It was just really eye-opening and I felt like it was an encounter with Christ and I loved it.”

Tracy Eichenberger, disaster preparedness and response coordinator for Catholic Charities of Arkansas, hosted a disaster simulation, giving the youth a glimpse at how much life changes in the blink of an eye when nature strikes.

“Every year we figure kids see in the news some sort of hurricane or tornados come through Arkansas, house fires … the kids see it, but we’ve never really focused on it,” Tingquist said.

Laurel Dhority, 17, a parishioner at St. Paul Church in Pocahontas, has attended C2SI several times. Attending this year was special after witnessing what local outreach services can do for people after her city suffered severe flooding in May, she said.

“C-squared is really important to me just because of the service we get to give those that are living on the outskirts of society. Doing things like this even though you don’t see those people, you still know they’re helping,” she said after loading boxes of food at the Arkansas Foodbank in Little Rock. “It’s really important to me because a lot of people in my community recently have been affected by natural disasters and things like that so it’s really great to do stuff like this here and be able to take it back home.”