{"id":302404,"date":"2026-07-22T00:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302404\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T00:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:29:11","slug":"vacation-bible-school-planned-at-st-clare-church-on-staten-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302404\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacation Bible School Planned at St. Clare Church on Staten Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer means vacation Bible school (VBS) across the Archdiocese of New York<\/a>, where grade-school children are trading screen time for songs, crafts, and Scripture at parish gatherings built to make faith feel fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year,\u00a0St. Clare Church<\/a>\u00a0on Staten Island is sending campers into the jungle. Its VBS program, \u201cRainforest Falls: Exploring five foundational truths about the nature of God,\u201d promises kids \u201ca wild, creature-filled adventure\u201d where they discover that God is Creator, all-knowing, our refuge, love, and forever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The program runs Monday, Aug. 3, through Friday, Aug. 7, each morning from 9 a.m. to noon, and welcomes children from four-year-old preschool through fifth grade in September. St. Clare is\u00a0located\u00a0at 110 Nelson Ave. in the Great Kills area of Staten Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Catherine Adinolfi, coordinator of the parish\u2019s Family Life Ministry, the week\u2019s impact stretches well beyond the campers themselves. \u201cNot only does VBS touch the hearts and minds of the campers, but it also deeply affects all the volunteers, young and old. They are reminded of and moved by the message that God is with us and loves us always,\u201d she told\u00a0The Good Newsroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The volunteers, she said, get just as much out of it as the kids do. \u201cFor the student volunteers, it helps develop leadership skills and a feeling of belonging. For adult volunteers,\u00a0I believe it\u00a0gives them a chance to give back, share their gifts, and feel (that they\u2019re) a part of something positive,\u201d said Adinolfi, who also heads the parish VBS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fr. Arthur Mastrolia, St. Clare\u2019s pastor, sees the week as one of the highlights of the parish year. \u201cOur annual Vacation Bible School is a joyful and spiritually enriching time for our parish each summer. It gives our children a chance to\u00a0encounter\u00a0the Gospel in a way that is alive, creative, and deeply personal. During these summer days, faith becomes something they can see, touch, and experience, not only something they hear about in a classroom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Clare\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0alone in bringing Scripture to life this season. The parish of\u00a0Holy Name of Jesus \u2013 St. Gregory the Great<\/a>\u00a0on West 96th Street in Manhattan just wrapped its second year of \u201cDiscovery Mission: Catholic Vacation Bible School Summer Camp.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At\u00a0Saint Michael the Archangel Church<\/a>\u00a0in the Co-op City section of the Bronx, campers time-traveled to the ancient world with a program themed \u201cRome: Join Paul and the Underground Church.\u201d \u201cAt Rome, everyone gets to explore first-hand the culture of Paul\u2019s world, (experiencing) the heartbreaking trials, joyous victories, and tear-filled celebrations of this unique Bible hero,\u201d the program material noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Anthony of Padua Church<\/a>\u00a0in the Bronx\u2019s summer camps weave in faith-based discussions and activities of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer means vacation Bible school (VBS) across the Archdiocese of New York, where grade-school children are trading screen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5555,6300,4840,114632,9,24,63,114633,134,136,135,11304,63927,114634],"class_list":["post-302404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","tag-catholic","tag-catholic-church","tag-catholic-summer-camp","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-st-clare-church","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-summer","tag-summer-camp","tag-vacation-bible-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}