Juniors Heidi Hans and Ruth Arno cut tomatoes to serve for lunch at the Open Door Mission.

by J1 Reporter Ellie Brabec

Here at Marian, retreats are some of the most quintessential moments of the Marian girl experience. From sleeping over at school at freshman retreat, to spending a day at camp Rivercrest for sophomore retreat, to sleeping over at St. Leo’s Church for senior retreat. Many core Marian memories are made during retreats, but there is one retreat that is often overlooked and that is: Junior Retreat. Though it may not be the most well known of the retreats at Marian, it is nevertheless important. 

Countless girls ask the question: What is Junior Retreat? Each Wednesday out of the year, a group of around six juniors and one faculty member chaperone venture down to the Open Door Mission to spend the day doing service projects from stocking shelves to serving food. Each girl leaves with a better understanding of the importance of service. Organized by Campus Minister, Sister Jackie Thorn, junior retreats hope to give Marian juniors insight into the challenges taking place in our community.

Sr. Jackie has just entered her eighth year in charge of Junior Retreat and when asked about why Marian girls go to Open Door Mission on Jackie said “I didn’t choose it, it was chosen before I came. They[Open Door Mission] are so excited for Marian girls to come” The summer leading up to Junior Retreat Sr. Jackie sits down and assigns each girl in the homeroom a number and matches all the numbers from each homeroom with the corresponding numbers from the other homerooms. “In the summer I email them[faculty and staff] in the summer with the dates and then they sign themselves up. The staff is very generous when it comes to serving. If a teacher goes, I sub in their class for the day.” Sr. Jackie hopes that Junior Retreat helps build our Marian community stronger to those who need our help. “It is all because we believe as Christians we should serve others and this is the perfect way to do that,” said Sr. Jackie. 

Junior Nicole Poole attended Junior Retreat on Nov. 15. “It made me feel full and to know that I was making a difference in people’s lives left me feeling grateful,” she said. Poole left retreat with a better understanding of what service is and how it can help so many people. Poole’s said the  most rewarding part of retreat was “when I smiled at people they genuinely smiled back…. which to me showed how grateful they were that I was there helping them.” Poole’s outlook on retreat truly embodies what Marian is trying to achieve in this retreat and that is making each girl a compassionate young woman who hopes to change her community and the world for the better. 

Thanks to the help of Sr. Jackie and all members of the Marian community Junior Retreat is an experience that each Marian girls gets to experience with the goal of bettering those around them.