SPOTLIGHTING A LIFELONG PARISHIONER By Susan Gold Santa (pronounced: Sahnta) Young will be 101 years old this coming July and she has been a member of Assumption Church her entire life and her parents before her.  Her parents, Maddalena and, came from the LeMarche / Peruggia areas of Italy in 1910 and 1905 respectively and met and were married in Chicago in 1913.  Their first child, Santa, was born in 1914 and five more children followed.  Santa and her siblings all attended and graduated from Assumption Grammar School on Erie.  As we know, the school was shuttered in 1945. The Marchettis lived across the street from the school at Erie and Orleans.  Carlo owned a business there, “The Italian American Saloon”, and the family lived above it.  Over the years Santa worked in the restaurant for her father and when it closed she later worked at the House of Bertini that had been located at Wells and Grand.  Santa married Paul Young in 1942 and daughter Carlotta was born in 1949.  Sadly, Paul passed away in 1949 when Carlotta was just six months old.  Carlotta too has been a lifelong member of Assumption Church just like her mother.  They have both travelled a lot during their lives.  Carlotta was a models’ agent for trade shows and travelled extensively throughout the country until she retired. Santa has been to Italy four times visiting the regions where her parents grew up.  She has also travelled to Australia on three occasions to visit her brother Fr. Carlo Marchetti, a Servite priest still serving there.  Fr. Carlo is 89 years young and Santa’s only living sibling.  Her sister, Sr. Eleanor Marchetti, was a Sacred Heart Mother Cabrini Missionary and she served in Europe during WWII.  After being a north side Chicago resident for 100+ years,  Santa recently moved to Niles with Carlotta for the convenience of condo living.  But if you want to say hello simply come to the 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning mass and you will find Santa sitting in the front pew on the left side.  I know she would be happy to see you and if you speak some Italian, even better.  She is a beautiful woman with an infectious smile and a kind word for everyone.  We are blessed to know Santa Marchetti Young.

SPOTLIGHTING AN INSPIRED AND INSPIRING PARISHIONER By Susan Gold Originally from small towns in Ohio, Jonathon Dues and his wife, Lindsey, are now Chicagoans along with their two year old son, Jonny.  Jonathon graduated Hillsdale College in Michigan where he was not only a full scholarship student but a highly skilled and accomplished basketball player leading the school to its first Division II NCAA Tournament bid.  After graduation Jonathon’s career brought him to Chicago where he is now the National Sales Director for the 401k Division of RF Investments out of San Francisco.  With his career and personal life on track, Jonathon wanted to incorporate his passion for basketball back into his life so he joined a competitive men’s basketball league comprised of skilled veteran professional and collegiate athletes.  As he became more involved with these men and their accomplishments beyond the basketball court, he started to realize that there was the possibility of a way to bring all those skills together in a new business and in 2009 First Class Hoops was born on Chicago’s north side.  First Class Hoops is an advanced basketball teaching organization for boys and girls 8 years old and up where they learn the art of playing combined with life skills and having fun.  In the last five years FCH became wildly successful, which brings us to the inspiring part of this Spotlight.  Jonathon along with his business partner, Gary Cowen, saw a way to take this for profit business to an entire new level and bring their skills to the inner city.  The Hoops Class Foundation was formed with partnerships of Chicago Public Elementary and High Schools as well as other organizations catering to the same demographic.  The Foundation funds updating of school facilities and bringing their basketball clinics to underprivileged students providing them the opportunity to flourish, developing life skills and character development through the various aspects of basketball.  They use the idea that reading is of great importance and they donate books on sports to these kids to get them interested in and addicted to reading, making it a requirement to be a part of the clinics.  Their plan is to provide college scholarships for those high school graduates that have succeeded in their program and need the help to continue on with their education.  Jonathon had an excellent role model for his desire to help others, his father.  Mr. Dues was a Juvenile Court judge who was tired of only dolling out sentences to troubled youth in Eaton, Ohio so he began a youth foundation for them.  From that foundation came a YMCA, a branch campus of a community college and a hospital all helping to serve the disadvantaged demographic of Eaton’s community.  Jonathon Dues and his family are certainly living a life of faith, which inspires their philanthropy to children in need.  Please visit www.firstclasshoops.com to read more about the organization and foundation.

SMALL GROUP FAITH-SHARING COMES TO ASSUMPTION by Lynne Japp In the 1980s the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, developed and implemented a process called RENEW which was, and still is, a program encouraging and supporting the formation of small communities “who gather prayerfully to reflect on and share the Word of God, to make better connections between faith and life, and to live their faith more concretely in family, work and community life” (RENEW International).  It was adopted by parishes and diocese around the country and the world.  Over the past thirty years, RENEW International has developed other programs that also bring small faith-sharing groups together.  One of those programs is Lenten Longings which Assumption Parish has initiated this Lent. Lenten Longings is a series of programs based on the three-year cycle of the Lectionary, years A, B and C.  Each program consists of six sessions corresponding to the six weeks of Lent.  This year’s program, year B, is titled “For the Life of the World” and encourages participants to be aware of issues of social justice.  In each session participants reread the scripture readings for that week, then read a short reflection provided in the program booklet.  The booklet then provides several questions for reflection and discussion.  Finally, there is an invitation to act, to use the inspiration provided by the discussion to do something in our daily lives to connect our faith to action. The people who are participating in Lenten Longings come from two different experiences.  There are those who have participated in small faith-sharing groups in the past and those who have never had such experience.  Those who have participated in the past recall the sense of belonging and fellowship they gained with the other people in the program.  Those who are new to the experience come with a sense of apprehension but quickly feel comfortable in their groups.  It is easy for us to attend Mass every week, even attend programs offered by the parish, but, as one participant pointed out, “Have you met someone new at Assumption this past year?”  When you share faith in the comfort of another parishioner’s living room, you can’t help but come to love your neighbor. We hope to offer ongoing opportunities for small group faith-sharing experiences at Assumption.  We hope you will join us next time