When 15 youth leaders from St. Jerome Parish’s Esperanza Latina group board a plane for World Youth Day in Krakow in July 2016, it will mark a special kind of success. It’s the success borne not just of setting a goal and meeting it, but also bringing together the entire group, the parish and neighboring parishes as well.

“It’s really been quite miraculous in some ways,” said Father Jeremy Thomas, pastor of St. Jerome, located at 1709 W. Lunt.

In June the group started raising money to make the pilgrimage at the suggestion of Thomas, said Jennifer Martinez, one of the youth leaders.

“He knew we work hard and we do a lot for the parish, and he thought we deserved a kind of reward,” she said.

While the group, which includes mostly people in their late teens and early 20s, has about 25 core leaders, some of them could not travel outside the United States because they are undocumented and they would not be able to re-enter the country, so Thomas said the goal was to send the 15 leaders who would be able to go to represent the whole group.

The group estimates that sending 15 people will cost $40,000.

The young people put on skits and enact Biblical events, especially those surrounding the crucifixion and death of Jesus during Holy Week. They host retreats, prayer nights and other events for young people, and they bring their efforts too other parishes as well. While the group focuses on young people, everyone is welcome.

“We decided to just start raising money and send as many people as we could,” Thomas said.

By early October, they had already banked enough to send 11 people, he said, and they planned to keep going until they met their goal.

The group has held concerts and dinners, sold T-shirts and put on performances. As part of the campaign, they do a skit at every Mass one Sunday each month, and the parish takes up a second collection to support the campaign.

“This is really bringing the whole parish together,” Thomas said. “It’s amazing. People like to see our young people involved and doing something.”

It’s also brought the members of Esperanza Latina together, Thomas said, with everyone pulling together so that some of them can go.

Martinez agreed that the biggest benefit so far has been the unity engendered by the campaign.

“The campaign hasn’t really been about sending us to Poland,” she said. “It’s about coming together.”

On top of the spiritual benefits to both the youth group and the parish, Thomas said, “it’s quite fun.”

“I think we’ve been really blessed to have other groups supporting us,” Martinez said.

Martinez, who will likely travel to Poland with the group, said she wasn’t terribly excited about going at first, until she focused on the event as a pilgrimage rather than a trip.

Martinez said she doesn’t like crowds very much, and it will likely be difficult to maneuver around the city and eat and sleep on normal schedules.

“But it really is about sacrifice,” she said. “And just to be in the same place as the pope, it’s going to be very moving to me.”

To buy a T-shirt for $20 to support the group’s pilgrimage to World Youth Day, call St. Jerome Parish at 773-262-3170.