St Anna GOYA
GOYA Helping Those In Need
St Anna Greek Orthodox Church has a thriving GOYA Program headed by directors Maria Georgeles and Christi Staikos. The youth have represented the church respectively and eloquently in Metropolis events and have earned the praises of the community.
GOYA
The Greek Orthodox Youth of America, or GOYA, is the ministry to teenagers of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Since GOYA is a ministry, the orientation and implementation of the program should reflect the Orthodox Christian Faith, Tradition and Life.
GOYA is a ministry to junior high and high school grade Orthodox Christian teenagers. Teenagers should be in seventh through twelfth grades to participate. It is recommended that GOYA ministry be divided into two distinct groups, the junior high GOYA ministry and the high school GOYA ministry.
MISSION AND GOAL OF GOYA MINISTRY
The mission and goal of GOYA ministry is to lead our young people into experiencing the Holy Orthodox Faith. By developing a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and becoming active sacramental members of the living Church, our young people will be equipped with tools necessary to assist them in their journey toward salvation.
For more information regarding the St Anna Greek Orthodox GOYA, please contact Maria Georgeles, maria_georgeles@yahoo.com or Christi Staikos, cstaikos@comcast.net.
2012/2013 REGISTRATION FORMS AND DOCUMENTS
❉ Medical History Questionnaire
Registration for new GOYANs begins September 23, 2012. Any parishioner who is now of age (12 years old by October 1st, or in 7th grade) and would like to participate in GOYA, send an e-mail to Maria Georgeles (maria_georgeles@yahoo.com) or Christie Staikos (cstaikos@comcast.net).
The first GOYA activity night/meet and greet event took place September 23 at the church fellowship hall.
Officers for the 2012/13 Executive Board include:
Sofia Tsatsos – President
Anthony Kubu – Vice President
Anna Tsatsos – Treasurer
Kallie Georgelis – Secretary
2011/2012 YEAR IN REVIEW
As the 2011/2012 GOYA year concludes, we would like to thank our paishioners for supporting GOYA in our various fund raisers. We are happy to report that we had a total of 33 registered GOYAns. Four of those were seniors who have graduated and are attending the university of their choice and continuing their education. They are Katerina Douvris, Zoi Heinke, Cynthia Vlad and Kyriakos Savidis. Good luck!
Our parish was well represented this year with our girls volleyball, and junior and senior boys basketball teams. The tournaments with our District’s participating parishes have been very successful as our GOYAns represented our Parish with Honor and Pride. New volleyball and basketball players are welcome to join the team. We will be practing on Wednesday evenings beginning in September with games on Sundays beginning in October.
Most of our GOYAns also participated in our Parish’s dance troop and have performed at multiple events throughout the year. New dancers are encouraged and welcomed. Dance practice for the senior dance troop will be held on Tuesday evenings.
During the 2011/2012 year our GOYAns have participated in various district and state wide events which included:
- The annual “diving for the cross” event which took place in September. Our Parish had 4 GOYANs representing our church this year!
- The Bowling Tournament
- The Christmas Dance
- The Bridges Outreach/feed the homeless event
- The Valentine’s dance and finally, the Olympics and end-of-year dance during the Olympics to wrap up the year.
Our fundraisers for the 2011/2012 year included the Thanksgiving pie sale, the Loukoumades sale, and the annual clothing drive/Gyro sale. Thank you again to our parishioners for supporting our youth. We could not participate in all of these wonderful events without your love and support.
We look forward to upcoming district and state wide events for the upcoming 2012/2013 year.
On behalf of the 2011/2012 St. Anna GOYA
Maria Georgeles,
St. Anna GOYA Head Advisor