A group of about 40 father-son duos pulled down their masks, put on their yard work pants, and found some old shoes to do some landscaping work this past weekend at St. Louis U. High’s very own Madonna Della Strada Retreat Center.

The group took advantage of the long weekend and the beautiful weather to spend a day outside doing physical, yet rewarding labor on the grounds of the new retreat center. From morning prayer to a late 1:00, this unique hands-on service opportunity gave fathers and sons ca chance to bond with each other and with other father-son duos. 

The Madonna Della Strada Retreat Center is one of SLUH’s newest and most beautiful additions in recent years. Located about 70 miles northwest of the Oakland campus and named after the patroness of the Jesuits, Our Lady of the Way, the alluring 89-acre campus was acquired in 2018 when half of the land was generously donated to SLUH by the Sansone Family and the other half was purchased by SLUH itself. Once used as a farm, SLUH has spent the last several years renovating the grounds to be used as a retreat center for  SLUH and possibly other schools in the future.

“It’s a tremendous resource for us, for our formation here at SLUH, and a great expansion to our retreat and service programs,” said SLUH president Alan Carruthers. 

The work day, planned and directed by SLUH’s Fathers Club, was the third father-son service excursion to the retreat center since the start of the pandemic. These opportunities provide a safe and productive way for fathers to meet each other while working with their sons as a team to do some landscaping work on the retreat center campus. 

“I’m definitely not a stranger to this kind of service since I used to do it all the time as a Boy Scout,” said junior Jude Reed. “However, it’s the first time since the start of the pandemic that I was able to do this kind of thing again and it felt good to be back.”

The father-son duos made their way up Interstate 64 and onto State Highway 61 early Saturday morning to reach the retreat center, which is located off of State Highway F near Silex, Mo. When they arrived at around 8:00 a.m., they were greeted with coffee and donuts, a staple for the work-filled morning that lay ahead of them. Following a brief prayer service to mark the start of their morning, the members of the group organized themselves, picked up their shovels, and began to work. 

Carruthers and his son Archie were amongst the father son duos for the day. 

“We split people into four or five different teams and I helped give instructions and keep people on task during the beginning of the day,” said Carruthers. “I then helped with mulching the trail and a couple other projects.” 

The group primarily worked together on grounds maintenance, trail building, and trail improvements. At the retreat center, there are two accessible trail sections, one that goes through the forest on the property and one that goes through the open pasture. Most of the time the group spent working was on the forest trail. There, they applied mulch down on the beaten path and set up wood paneling alongside the trail with some grueling, back-bending work. Together, the party overcame adversity and got much of their tasks completed on the trail through their teamwork.

“It was some hard labor,” said senior Matthew Vanous. “It was a great way to bond through voluntary manual labor and coordination. It was pretty fun when we got to use chainsaws to cut down some trees.”

Some other projects that the group worked on included finishing a fire pit area outside of the retreat center that a previous group started months ago, along with upgrading a bridge on the pasture trail. After that, the group cut down some of the ornamental grasses on the property. 

“Needless to say, I was kind of all over the place,” said Carruthers.

The group worked with nonstop persistence from their morning coffee and donuts until 12:30 p.m., when the group retired the shovels and tools to enjoy lunch together before the day concluded. After lunch, the party cleaned up their work materials and headed back home to continue the rest of their weekend.

“I felt really satisfied with the work we did and what we accomplished,” said Reed. “I personally helped lay the stone for the fire pit and it felt great when people began complimenting how good it looked.”

All in all, the day turned out to be a tremendous success, both in connecting and bonding the group together through manual work and by accomplishing several unfinished tasks. These tasks were necessary to complete to help contribute to the beauty of the Madonna Della Strada Retreat Center. 

“It’s cool seeing how the guys who never used power tools before learn throughout the day how to use them until they are comfortable with them,” said Vanous. “It’s just so amusing to see them acclimate like that and makes the whole day a lot more enjoyable and special.” 

As of right now, SLUH Father’s Club has no other planned excursion to the property. Plans for future upgrades to the retreat facility include building a Marian grotto on the property and upgrading the barn into a usable recreational complex. 

“It truly is a tremendous resource for our school community,” said Carruthers. “We are now one of three schools in the Jesuit Schools Network of North America to have its own retreat center and it provides us with a unique place to grow together as a school community.”