Called to Love - Serving Those with Special Needs

A group of Central Catholic students volunteered with KIDS 2 Summer Camp at the Marist Brothers Center at Esopus NY for one week in August.

KIDS 2 is a sleepaway camp for individuals with special needs from the ages of 15 to 30 years old.

Raiders at KIDS 2

Above photo from KIDS 2 Camp

• Back row, left to right:
  • Amaya Colon '25
  • Yerlin Garcia '24
  • Christian Jorge '24
  • Jane Njoroge '25
  • Destiny Perkins '25
  • Megan Mwathe '25
  • Amelia Castillo '25
• Front row, left to right,
  • Mrs. Earline Tweedie, Campus Minister & Religious Studies Teacher
  • David Tweedie (camper)
  • Dashira Marte '24

The CCHS Family should be particularly proud of these students and their efforts - for how they represented themselves and Central Catholic in living out our Marist ideals.

About KIDS 2 Camp

KIDS 2 is an overnight camp for individuals with special needs from the ages of 15 to 30 years old. Campers are placed in groups with one-on-one counselors. Each day starts in "chapel" followed by activities from arts and crafts including tie dye, carnival games, swimming, karaoke, dances, and campfires. Counselors are working with campers from 7:30 AM to 10:00 PM.

There were 198 people at camp including, campers, counselors, directors, nurses, kitchen staff and maintenance staff.

Campers and counselors form bonds and friendships that impact one another. 

The Marist Brothers Center at Esopus – Mid-Hudson Valley Camp

KIDS 2 Camp is part of the Marist Brothers Center at Esopus – Mid-Hudson Valley Camp.

St. Marcellin Champagnat, founder of the Marist Brothers, felt a personal call to establish a community that would bring the message of love for all. His vision lives on through the Marist Brothers Center at Esopus – Mid-Hudson Valley Camp, where all walks of life are welcome to the Center’s retreat and camp programs that embody the Marist values of welcome and acceptance, joyful service to others, community, simplicity and humility.

As a registered 501(c)(3) located in Esopus, NY, tucked within over 160 acres of aesthetic beauty on the Hudson River, the Center works to positively foster spirituality and community, and promote volunteerism and support of others. Each year, more than 5,000 individuals walk through the MBCE gates for self-exploratory retreats, memorable camps, and fulfilling service-work

 

About the Marist Brothers of the Schools

The Marist Brothers of the Schools is a Roman Catholic congregation of vowed teaching brothers founded by Saint Marcellin Champagnat in France in 1817.

Today, the Marist Brothers are an international religious community of more than 4,000 Catholic Brothers dedicated to making Jesus known and loved through the education of young people, especially those most neglected.

Marist Brothers are located in 81 countries in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania. There are over 600,000 young people in Marist schools around the world each year.

The Marist Brothers are joined worldwide by more than 70,000 lay men and women who share in their mission.

In the United States there are more than 130 Marist Brothers living in 32 communities across eight states.

Marist Brothers strive to make a difference in the world by showing young people that they are loved, safe and cared for.

Central Catholic was founded in 1935 by Brother Florentius and the Marist Brothers.

Our identity as Marists and as Catholics informs every aspect of school life.

Being Marist

Guided by the vision of Saint Marcellin Champagnat, we are dedicated to the education and spiritual development of the young. We are called to prepare young minds and hearts to succeed and make a difference in the world.

As Marists, we believe strongly in the importance and power of family; it’s at the very heart of the Central Catholic experience.

So much of what our alumni remember most—the abiding respect for everyone in our community, our commitment to the least favored, the dedication of our faculty, and the unbreakable bonds of friendship, can be traced directly back to the Marist tradition of family spirit.

The Five Pillars of our Marist Identity

The Five Pillars of Marist Identity were introduced by the Marist Province in 2015 as ideals to which all Marists, students and adults alike, should commit to.

The Pillars are:

Presence… caring for each other, seeking relationships founded on love, being attentive and welcoming with a sense of openness

Simplicity… being straightforward and genuine, humble and modest, ‘doing good quietly’

Family Spirit… relating to each other as members of a loving family, building community, offering the warmth of welcoming, acceptance and belonging, sharing our successes and failures, setting clear standards of honesty, mutual respect, and tolerance

Love of Work… being generous of heart, constant, and persevering in our daily work, confident, visionary, decisive in meeting the needs of our community and encouraging each other to discover the dignity of our work with young people and with each other

In the Way of Mary… seeing Mary as a perfect model of being Marist, tender, strong, constant in faith, open to God’s calling us to our own journey of discipleship