Lourdes 2012
She writes:
"Having joined Silhouette last summer, I was really keen to go to Lourdes this year to see how the money we raised is used, and have a chance to help out in a more practical way. I've had a lot of friends travel to Lourdes in previous years with HCPT and had heard a lot from other members of Silhouette, but I definitely still had a sense of the unknown as we left Farnborough on Easter Sunday for the 24-hour journey down to the south of France.I really needn't have worried! Of the group of ten of us who travelled together (including five members of Silhouette, David, Emz, Mark, Pete and myself), four of us were asked to spend the week helping a 'family' group from Cardiff - Group 73 - a group of volunteer helpers who had brought 9 young people with a wide range of special needs for the weeks' holiday. It was incredibly daunting to be thrown into helping with the group right on Day 1, but I'm so glad that we were, as it gave me the best possible idea of what HCPT and Lourdes is really about. It feels impossible to describe the whole week in the few words I have here, but I'll do what I can.
The young people:
HCPT week in Lourdes is all about the children. The money which Silhouette helps the family groups to raise goes directly to funding the holiday for individual children, with each child's trip costing around £800. This is paid for by the group, and all helpers pay for themselves. I was genuinely honoured to get the chance to work with Group 73 during the week and to see the effect that the holiday had on the children. Watching them overcome initial shyness, forge friendships and come together as a group, seeing them singing, dancing and laughing with each other and their helpers, hearing some of the wonderful comments they made during mass and their quieter evening chats with the rest of the group - the whole experience was so rewarding for everyone involved.The singing:
Lourdes, in the week after Easter, HCPT week, is like a carnival. With hundreds of groups from around the world converging on the small town, you can't help but feel a party atmosphere around the place and it's rare to walk anywhere with your group (especially with kids!) without singing at the top of your voice. They really enjoy the chance to be as loud as they like.The masses:
Lourdes is, essentially, a place of pilgrimage, centred around the Grotto where the Virgin Mary appeared as a vision to St Bernadette in 1858. Many people go here to bathe in the spring waters and pray for cures and relief from illness, but HCPT week has a very different feel to it! There is a palpable spirituality about the week and the children have a mass said for them every day - either just their family group, together with other groups from their region or, on Thursday morning, the massive, amazing HCPT Trust Mass in the Underground Basilica with more than 5,000 people present. All of these masses are focused on the kids, on messages they can understand and are full of singing, dancing, tambourine-shaking and laughter. Group 73's mass on Tuesday with the group from the West Indies was particularly great - those guys know how to sing!!I feel that I can't really do Lourdes justice in mere words, because what we all got out of it is so much more. It's about helping others, having some great fun along the way, strengthening existing friendships and making new ones. The sense of the unknown that my week started with was fairly well-founded, because I could never have imagined what a great time I'd have. I'll be going back next year!"
