We offer a youth group for tweens and teens as part of the religious education program. Our Warriors group is centered around service projects that are created, planned and executed by our young members.

Our ongoing “You CAN help” drive where parishioners are given an empty bag to take home and return it to mass the following week for our food pantry supply initiative.

The Annual Advent Gift Drive - The Siena House, a shelter for homeless women and their babies.
Every year, the Warriors executed a complex gift drive for 27 mothers and their babies under three years old. With the help of the Parish community, the Warriors deliver 54 personalized gifts to the shelter in time for Christmas.

The Annual Diaper Drive - Simultaneously with the Advent Gift Drive, the Warriors collect 4 truck-loads of baby items such as: diapers, formula, bottles, blankets, strollers, and clothing to serve Siena House’s ongoing list of needs.

The Lenten Coat Drive for the Bowery Mission – As part of their Parish outreach, the Warriors gathered over 100 coats for The Bowery Mission, our neighborhood’s organization that serves the homeless community. Click here for website.

Housing Works Clothing Donation - Simultaneously with the coat drive, the Warriors sorted and catalogued gently used clothing and donated it on a weekly basis to Housing Works, a NYC based non-profit fighting the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness. Housing Works runs a neighborhood thrift store that resells items to raise money for their cause.

The Bake Sale - At the end of the academic year, the Warriors planned, executed and served at their own beautiful bake sale held in the courtyard of 32 Prince St, the building that the St Patrick’s family religious education program calls home. The Warriors raised $1,000 with which they funded their own sports program.

Show You Care, Give a Pair - Winter new sock and boxer drive to benefit the Bowery Mission!

The Warriors, following their service time every other Sunday, participate in a skills and drills basketball clinic at the St Patrick’s Youth Center. A professional basketball coach works with the kids of our religious education program, teaching them athletic skills, sportsmanship, and team building strategies. The sports program is a fun extension of our faith formation program.

The Warriors along with the “Junior Warriors,” are taking an active role in the 12:45pm family mass at The Basilica of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral.
 
Our young people have the responsibility of handing out hymnals before mass, taking the collection, and handing out bulletins and flyers after mass. Recently, The Warriors were invited to be the permanent lectors at the 12:45 mass. Every week, the Warriors take turns on the alter at the first and second reading, as well as the Prayer of the Faithful.

The Warriors welcome the students in our Confirmation class, the “Junior Warriors,” to participate in service projects to help them fulfill the service hours required by Confirmation. Helping out in the religious education program is another way that the Warriors develop as servant leaders as they put into practice their years of faith formation.
 
“Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the main goal of the leader is to serve.
Unlike leadership approaches with a top-down hierarchical style, servant leadership instead emphasizes collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power. At heart, the individual is a servant first, making the conscious decision to lead in order to better serve others, not to increase their own power. The objective is to enhance the growth of individuals.”

~Coats for All Souls~

This year, the Bowery Mission amplified their Thanksgiving Meal Program by presenting the most vulnerable and needy in our community with care packages and coats in addition to their Thanksgiving Meals. The Warriors decided to engage our Parish in a coat drive through the month of November to contribute to this ambitious endeavor and successfully adquired many needed items to help the homeless. Coat Drive Website.

 
~The Annual Advent Gift Drive & Diaper Drive~

The Warriors place two live Advent Trees in the foyer of our church, decorate them with beautiful, handmade ornaments that they painstakingly inscribe with each mother’s name and baby’s name and size. They welcome our parishioners to take an ornament after mass and shop for a personalized gift for each resident of Siena House. They keep track of each gift with a detailed spreadsheet to ensure no resident goes without a gift. Additionally, the Warriors work closely with Sister Mary Doris, who provides them with “an ongoing needs” list outlining the basic supplies for these vulnerable mothers and their babies. The Warriors create more ornaments labeled with each item requested. The generosity of our Parish is overwhelming. Finally, the children sort and package all of the gifted items and hand deliver them to Siena House, located in the Bronx. The trips up and down the many stairs into the shelter are well worth the effort, as they get a chance to meet the grateful residents of the Siena House.

~Easter Baskets for Mother and Child~

The creation and delivery of 27 beautiful handmade Easter Baskets for the mothers and babies at Siena House Shelter. We register on Target.com and/or Amazon.com and engage the online community in this wonderful effort.

~Ongoing partnership with The Bowery Mission~

The Warriors have partnered with The Bowery Mission (link: https://www.bowery.org/) to work in their kitchen and dining hall at 227 Bowery once a month to serve food to the homeless and hungry people of our neighborhood! For more information on how you can be a part of our Service Youth Group DM us @WarriorYouthNYC on Instagram!