Don Bosco Week Comes to Port Chester

By Fr. Bill Bucciferro, Director, St. John Bosco Parish

(Port Chester, NY – January 28) – Thanks to a new initiative of Fr. Franco Pinto, St. John Bosco Parish has started Don Bosco Week!

The parish is currently preparing a Don Bosco show, art contest, food festival, and parish prayer said at every Mass for parishioners to learn about Don Bosco and the Salesians.

The Salesian community in Port Chester started their week with the Don Bosco Fest, a Saturday Oratory experience for new kids in the parish. The parish also had a magic show, food, games, and the Mass for the feast of St. Francis de Sales.

All this was done despite the low temperatures and the challenges of the snowstorm brought to the parish. However, the Salesian spirit wasn’t broken, and the Salesian community plowed on through them. It was beautiful to see the Salesian Family—SDBs, FMAs, ADMA, and Salesian Cooperators—involved in this effort.

Youth activities will go on throughout the week and finish with a youth rally and Mass for the feast of Don Bosco on Saturday, January 31. The young parishioner with the most participation will get a chance to cut Fr. Eddie's hair on Saturday; this activity commemorates an event [to be acted out in a skit] in the life of Don Bosco, who received a really poor haircut from a young apprentice barber. This will be done to encourage that young person to come to the Oratory. This haircutting activity will be done to encourage the young person cutting Fr. Eddie's hair to become a frequent member of our oratory.

The Salesian community of Port Chester thanks Fr. Eddie Chincha for his generosity and willingness to get his hair chopped off in public. He used to do this every year when he was in Tampa to get the young people excited to participate in Don Bosco Week activities. It’s having a bigger effect in Port Chester, too.