‘They are doers.’ SLO County teens raise thousands to help families affected by COVID-19
A group of Cambria teens is working to help those struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The high school students are following their passion for helping — one act of charity and kindness at a time — while following in the steps of their spiritual exemplar, the late Italian social activist Pier Giorgio Frassati.
The Frassati Group at Cambria’s Santa Rosa Catholic Church has been quietly raising money to help others and provide additional religious training for group members.
Initially, the group’s fundraising success was modest, with money raised mostly through tamale sales, car washes and dinners with raffles. But this year, the teens have amassed tens of thousands of dollars toward helping parishioners and their families through the coronavirus pandemic.
And the teens’ efforts are continuing.
Participants in the Cambria Frassati Group include group president Sydney Barker, vice president Viviana Nuñez and treasurer Michelle Acosta. Other group members are Maria Castillo, Edwardo Cruz, Julio Gomez, Sujey Gutierrez, Alex Merced, Jenny Mondragon, Victor Mondragon and Iris Nuñez.
In recent interviews, Acosta, Barker and Viviana Nunez came across as polite, personable, knowledgeable and totally dedicated to their charity and its causes.
All three incoming high school seniors said they had been active fundraisers before the formation of their Frassati Group. Barker remembered how she helped to raise money starting in third grade, and Acosta and Nunez said their fundraising efforts began in middle school.
What is a Frassati group?
Each Frassati group is loosely based on the teachings and practices of Frassati, a 20th century Roman Catholic activist whose acts of charity, large and small, shaped his legacy.
He was dedicated to social justice issues and determined to aid the poor and less fortunate living in his hometown of Turin. Frassati was also an avid mountaineer and able swimmer.
He died in 1925 at the age of 24.
“After his death, the countless acts of charity he performed became known,” Frassati’s sister Luciana is quoted as saying on the website FrassatiUSA.org. “Sometimes it was simply giving away his bus money and walking home. Sometimes it was helping someone find a job. Sometimes it was bringing others to Mass. ... Sometimes it was the smile that was always on his face or his willingness to sing even though he was always out of tune.”
Frassati was beatified in 1990 by Pope John Paul II, and named the “man of the eight beatitudes.”
The Pope said of Frassati, “I, too, in my youth, felt the beneficial influence of his example and, as a student, I was impressed by the force of his Christian testimony.”
According to FrassatiUSA.org, “Groups of all shapes and sizes are forming around the country” under Frassati’s patronage.”
Cambria teens raise money for COVID-19 relief
Speaking of Santa Rosa Catholic Church’s Frassati group, the Rev. Mark Stetz said, “They are doers.”
“All the kids in the group really have been go-getters,” said Stetz, the church’s priest.
In the beginning, according to group treasurer Acosta, “It was another way to hang out together while doing something good at church.”
In their first year, Stetz said, when the teens were sophomores, they raised $1,000 for their first charity, Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles nonprofit that “helps young people get out of gang life and find jobs and help.”
They also raised money for the group to go to Los Angeles “to see what it would be like to pull yourself out of gang life” there, he said.
For the 2019-2020 school year, Stetz said, “they wanted to do something closer to home, so they picked 40 Prado and its homeless services center,” aiming to raise $2,000 for that charity.
Frassati President Barker said the participants initially raised more than $4,500 and planned to use the extra for a religious youth retreat.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, bringing uncertainty, confusion, shelter-in-place orders and mandatory closures of businesses and schools.
The outbreak also triggered job losses, especially among hospitality industry workers who serve the public in restaurants, motels, parks, at homes and in gardens and yards.
So, instead of a retreat, Barker said, “We wanted to help COVID-impacted people in the community, in our parish, who needed that help for rent, food, utilities, gas” and more.
“We just saw a real need to help others rather than a retreat for us,” Nunez said. “There was a real need in our community.”
That’s where the extra funds went, Barker said.
Then, she added, “Father Mark spoke about our fundraising in his homily,” and parishioners who could spare some cash began to donate to the cause, asking others to match those donations.
Match it, they did, with a determination and dedication befitting the Frassati movement.
Stetz said one parishioner, who wants to be anonymous, not only donated a substantial amount and subsequent donations since then, but also she recruited friends to do the same. Some of them, the priest said, donated “well over $1,000 each.”
To date, the Frassati effort has raised “tens of thousands of dollars,” the priest said, declining to say exactly how much has already been amassed and handed out. “The kids vastly exceeded their aim with massive support from the rest of the parish.”
Acosta estimated in late July that the Frassati group has already helped about 70 families.
One case that sticks in her mind and heart, she said, involved a family of six that needed financial help to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Both parents had lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown, as had some of the teens who had been working part-time to help support the family.
That sounded painfully familiar to Acosta, whose own family of five was in the same boat. Four family members either lost their jobs or had their work hours drastically reduced due to the pandemic.
“Helping the other family really made me feel nice,” she said. “It’s not something huge, but we were able to help them when they needed it.”
