If you moved to Seattle from the East Coast with your spouse, you might take some time to get your house in order before you plunging into volunteer work.

Not Jer Carrasco, who joined St. Anne’s two years ago and almost immediately took charge of the Family Faith Formation program. She just can’t help herself. “I just love teaching and working with youth,” she says.

Well qualified for the task
She certainly has as the background for it. At St. Mary’s Church in Cherry Hill, NJ she was the religious education director of a program with 650 kids. She’s been involved with religious education since her late 20s, teaches a scripture class at Eastside Catholic High School and is studying for a master’s degree in pastoral studies at Seattle U.

Jer loves her work with the Family Faith Formation program, which provides religious education and faith formation for families whose children attend public schools.+ “I love the fact that we are involving the whole family,” she ways. “Our program in New Jersey was so big we simply couldn’t do that. The classes were held during the week and parents simply dropped their kids off. At St. Anne’s, we meet on Sunday’s at 8:30 and then go to Mass together and that’s wonderful.”

“The families have been wonderful.”
The parents appreciate the program, too. “The feedback is that they love it,” Jer points out, “and we get great support from them. If I can’t be there, they pitch in and cover and they’ve been great about letting me know when they are away. The families have been wonderful. That’s what makes St. Anne’s so special.”

Jer and her husband have certainly found a home at St. Anne’s. “It’s a friendly, welcoming parish and small enough that we’ve been able to get to know people even though we have no kids in school.” She’s a big fan of Fr. Paul. “I tell my husband it’s like having a professor at church. I don’t think people realize how lucky we are. It’s like receiving graduate-level instruction.”