Michael Mankowski will be the first Junior in Youth Ministry's history to become our 1063 and GLO Chair. This position is typically held by one of our seniors, but Michael is simply that talented that he's taking the lead this year and will do a fantastic job. Last year he was the Junior High Chair, which made him the first Sophomore ever to be in Core Group. This being the case, we're all curious what first he'll bring to his senior year!

On our right we've got Tim Stiroh, Michael Mankowski and Mariano Mondelo. Mariano (on the far right) is this year's After School Activities Chair and he is a complete and total rock star. Mariano is a senior this year, and while he did get involved in Youth Ministry after he first moved to Monty as a Sophomore, it was during his Junior year that he first got involved in leadership. He was a Zags leader last fall and a retreat team leader in the spring. He was awesome for both of these positions and now he'll be planning this year's after school activities. Every Monday afternoon you can count on him to be providing something fun so deinitely plan on joining us! Also, Margo Testa will be helping Mariano out as a member of his committee this year.

Greg Tarca is this year's Events Chair. Last year he helped out with our Sunday events, and immediately you could see an improvement in the quality of those activities. He is now in his Sophomore year of high school and in addition to being a member of Core Group, he is our youngest lector in the history of Saint Charles. He is creative, energetic, and extroverted enough to pull off some exceptional events this year. Helping him lead these are Allie Prosinski and Jake Vlacich. These two are also very talented and should make for an exciting year.

Greg Tarca, Liz Sohmer and Tim Herman are on the right. The image is from this year's heifer market, and this is just one of hundreds of activities Tim Herman has joined us for this year. Where did he come from? Who knows because he was nowhere to be found last year, but now he's one of our most active leaders and participants. Tim's primary leadership role is serving our eighth graders as this year's Junior High Chair. He was also a committee member this fall and has led fall and spring Zags! Aidan Connolly, Chris Manning and Alexa Frederick are on his Jr. High committee now and together these four are coming up with some pretty original activities. So whether you're an eighth grader or a high schooler, keep an eye out for Tim's events because they're a blast!

On our left we've got Nikki DeSario and Angie Valazza. This year Angie (on the right), as yet another Sophomore, will be our fifth member of Core Group. It was unheard of last year when we had Michael as our very first Sophomore and this year we've got two of them, which is great because Angie's amazing! She was definitely involved in Youth Ministry all of last year, however, it was the spring retreat that kicked her into gear and suddenly she was everywhere in youth group. This year she'll be our Outreach Coordinator, which is a huge role considering how much service we do. Helping her out will be four additional student leaders. Meghan Cordier will be leading the Enable volunteers, Sarah Zach will be running the show at Loaves & Fishes, Rachel Smith will be organizing students at T.A.S.K., and Brian Stiroh will be helping out with our volunteers heading to Yardville!

The worst part of the image to our right is that Liz Sohmer's planking was done while Chris was taking another member of their work group to the hospital for stitches. Other than planking on service trips, Liz does pretty much everything Youth Ministry has to offer and is incredible! Last year Liz was a Zags leader in the fall and was an exceptional spring retreat leader that year as well. This year she's our Praise & Worship Chair, which means she coordinates all twenty of our Liturgical Ministers and plans amazing activities for after every Youth Mass. Helping her plan for these events this year will be Jack Caldwell and Sean O'Brien.

Tim Stiroh is our seventh and final member of this year's Core Group, and he's obviously that guy on our left. Tim came out of nowhere last year and was all of a sudden doing literally everything! He was so involved that he joined the group in NM over spring break without even having an official leadership position yet! He is an amazing leader though and we are incredibly fortunate to have him taking the leadership of Zags this year. During the fall Tim will actually be coordinating all twenty-four Zag leaders and then he'll be organizing Spring Zags too!