Althoff Catholic High School - Crusader Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

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Teens Encounter Christ is a three-day experience in Christian living. You experience: a fresh and exciting place away from home, school, and work; meeting youth from other areas; finding a God you can believe in; encoun¬ tering Jesus Christ, risen and alive today; a follow-up program to help you live what you find at TEC, a time to reflect on your life, your ideas, hopes, and dreams. An encounter with Christ must be a freely accepted response. There will be no pressure. You are not to be expected to make definite decisions or make final conclusions. That ' s what the brochure tells you. Now let me tell you what REALLY goes on. On the Saturday morning of your TEC, you travel between one and three hours to wherever the retreat is being held. It ' s usually held somewhere in the boonies of southern Illinois, so don ' t expect too much hopping nightlife. You check in about 11:00 a.m., and you settle into your room. You had better have practiced your southern accent, because chances are that you will be rooming with someone from Murphysboro, or (heaven forbid) Ken¬ tucky, and they don ' t know how to talk right. My TEC weekend was the best weekend of my life. It did not change ME; it just added so much to my personality, my relationship with God, and most of all, to my relationship with you — every one of you. TEC is not a cult-thing. It gives you something practical to hold on to. You can ' t imagine the family TEC has created. Here are people who really love you, not just tolerate you or patronize you, but love you unconditional¬ ly. They don ' t care about your grades, or who your friends are, or what kind of car you drive. They just care about you. It ' s so simple, you ' ll be amazed at how easy it is. 6 1. Greg Graham practices music during a break on Sparta 62. 2. E. J. Jarvis jumps for joy over Fr. Alan Ruppert. 3. Holly Halverson, Lau¬ ra Voellinger, and Debbie Monk display their piety on their senior retreat. 4. Ken Wetstein, Mark Fausz, Liz Murphy, Brenda Rensing, Mol¬ ly Polka, Lisa Buettner, and Amy Kniepkamp sing the Blessing of Aaron at a reunion mass. 5. Greg Davis and Ken Rutter get crazy at the Evansville reunion. 6. Doug Elbe and Fr. Alan enjoy messing up Jim Schranz ' s styled hair. 7 Reunions are a very important and fun part of the TEC retreat program. I don ' t know, maybe it was the people — well, I guess it had to be the people — but my senior retreat was just a great experience. I did not expect it to be, but it was. It is so incredible how people can go to school with someone for three years or so and never talk to that someone, but know his or her name and form a defi¬ nite opinion about him or her. Everyone seems so nonchalant about typecasting people who are basically strangers, when you get right down to it. I did it. You probably do it now. Well, retreat blew all of my stereotypes right out the water. At first, I felt guilty. Where did I get off pre-judging these people? Didn ' t I hate the idea of others typecasting me? Then, I was happy to find how much I had in common with a lot of the people in my group; many of us had the same fears, worries, etc. We talked and thought, and then we talked about what we thought about. We complained, protested, learned, agreed, disagreed, laughed, and even cried. We had a good time. We became friends. I can ' t say that everyone in our group became best buddies. But I can say that at least everyone in our group un¬ derstands each other better. A lot of stereotypes were erased and a lot of bad feelings were cleared. No matter what you think, retreat is not stupid. It is about getting to know your classmates, and, more importantly, it is about getting to know yourself. — Ali¬ cia Sierra

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Because religion competes against opposing and conflicting social trends, Retreats attempt to bridge the gap. Early in the morning on Thursday, Octo¬ ber 2, forty Althoff students gathered in front of the gym. These students were waiting for the bus that would take them to the Marianist Apostolic Center for their Senior Retreat. I was one of these forty students. While everyone sat around waiting for the bus, which was late of course, I heard various groups of people talking. Some were ex¬ cited, and some were not even close to being enthused about the whole idea. The bus finally arrived, and all of us lugged our gear on board. Somewhere near ten o ' clock the bus reached its des¬ tination. Everyone went inside the re¬ treat house. We were introduced to our 2 retreat leaders. They were both very young, and it seemed odd that such young people would be doing this. I think everyone was expecting a couple of priests to make us ' holy ' on our two day trip, but this was not the case. The first day was spent doing various activities in small groups of ten and as a large group of forty. Each small group had a leader, and I was so privileged to have Tony Bankston as my group lead¬ er. But, believe it or not, my group actu¬ ally did get some things accomplished. During the day we were allowed free time every once in a while. The guys all went and played football or basketball. What the girls did, I don ' t know, be¬ cause I was playing football. To close our first day we watched a movie, and then we were treated to a late night piz¬ za party. About midnight, everyone went to bed. We were all exhausted. The next morning at 8:30, everyone woke to the sounds of Louie, Louie blaring over the speakers in the rooms. After showering, getting dressed, and eating, we all went to the ' great ' room to begin our activities of the day. The activities were always lots of fun, and I learned a lot about people I never knew before. Somewhere around 3:00 we were told it was time to return to Alth¬ off. Normally, you would think teen¬ agers would be relieved to go home. But not this group. During our 2 days we had all grown together as a kind of family. We took some group pictures and then boarded the bus. Some were glad, and some were sad, but I know everyone en¬ joyed this experience. We returned to Althoff at 4:00. Many talked of their evening plans because it was Friday. We would all see each other in school Mon¬ day and remember the wonderful school retreat we had. P.S. I ' m sure you want to know about the food. Well, be¬ lieve it or not, the food was very deli¬ cious. And they let us have seconds and thirds, and fourths ... — Greg Bedell The Freshmen Retreat was a worthwhile experience. It gave the freshman class a chance to get to know some of our fellow classmates as well as a chance to become closer to God. The day began with a busride to our destination, St. Luke ' s Parish Center. There, we were greeted by Father Elmar, who conducted our retreat. We were then put in groups with a senior as the leader of each group. After being separated into groups, we discussed who we were and what we liked. We then discussed how God had touched our lives. After getting to know the people in our group, it was much easier to talk with them. This allowed the day to run smoother. After eating lunch, we participated in a prayer service. The day ended with mass at St. Luke ' s Church. After mass, we boarded the bus for the ride back to school. All in all, the retreat was a success because we became closer to God and closer as a class. — Garrett Hoerner

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JANUARY 1986 7-Reagan orders all Americans remaining in Lybia to return home. U.S. cuts all economic ties to Lybia. -Reagan, Khadafy is not only a barbarian, but he ' s flaky. -Soviets blast U.S. films — RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, ROCKY IV, and RED DAWN. 15-Mikhail S. Gorbachev proposed a world wide ban on nu¬ clear weapons by the year 2000. -South Africa blockades Lesotho. -Gramm-Rudman budget law is triggered. -U.S. participates in MIA talks in Vietnam. 23-Oil prices plunge to a 6-year low. -U.S. commences flight operations over Lybia. -First Martin Luther King holiday observed. 28-NATION STUNNED BY TRAGEDY. American space shut¬ tle Challenger explodes shortly after take-off, all seven crew members are lost, shuttle fleet is grounded, Reagan postpones State of the Union address, makes plea to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle ' s take-off. What happened, he said, was part of the process of exploration and discov¬ ery. -Voyager 2 discovers new rings and moons about Uranus. 26-Bears out Patriots in Super Bowl 46-10. FEBRUARY 7-Jean Claude Duvalier flees Haiti, ends 28-year family rule. 7-Philippine election held amid fraud and violence. -Reagan appoints commission to study the shuttle disaster. 1 1 -Soviets free Jewish dissident Anatoly B. Shcharansky after eight years of imprisonment and forced labor. He returns to Israel. -Marcos is declared winner of Philippine election, Aquino announces active resistance campaign. -U.S. Senate condemns Philippine elections, saying they were marked by widespread fraud. 26-Marcos flees the Philippines hours after inauguration end¬ ing a 20-year presidency. Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos resigned and pledged support to Corazon Aquino, the new president. U.S. promises Marcos a safe haven if he left peacefully. -Reagan asks Congress for $100 million for the Nicara¬ guan contras fighting to overthrow the Sandinista govern¬ ment. 1986-1987 Year of Tragedy Year of Triumph