Flagler Beach, Florida 32136
SMDM Youth Group
Web Minister: Chau Phan
Tommy
Gschwind:
A young man
in charge
Santa Maria del Mar Parish in Flagler Beach is lucky to have Tommy Gschwind at the reins of several church ministries – and he’s only 18. In addition to coordinating, overseeing and serving at the 5 p.m. Sunday Youth Mass, Tommy gets up for the 7 a.m. Sunday Mass to ready the golf carts used to shuttle passengers up and down the church’s steep driveway.Tommy also took charge of the youth group after the departure of Richard Pagano, who is now a seminarian in formation for the diocese. The new youth group spent the summer raising funds for a trip to Steubenville South in Atlanta, Ga. “We are starting to grow and get good, active members,” he observes.
He has just become a First Degree Knights of Columbus and worked full-time during the summer as a recreation leader for kids in Palm Coast. Having recently graduated from Flagler-Palm Coast High school, he is discerning a career with the fire department or the United States Coast Guard. The choice is tough; he doesn’t want to have to say goodbye. “It’s the goodness that comes from all of this. God does a lot for you and you see that being here every week,” Tommy says.
“Whatever the future holds for him, we have been blessed to have him here at Santa Maria del Mar,” his pastor, Father John Tetlow, says.
From: "YOUTH: The Church of Today," by Amelia Eudy, St. Augustine Catholic, September 2007, at http://www.staugcatholic.org/
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