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If you’ve made it to p.29 of your Dec. 18 issue already:

1. Congratulations! You’re more than half-way through one of our largest issues ever.
2. Despite so many pages, there still wasn’t room for all of our stories. Most notably, there are some details missing from the Salesian sister feature on p.29. That info is below.

The Salesian sisters run a summer camp at St. John Vianney School in Goodyear. The image is from a two-part video tribute celebrating 100 years of the order's ministry in the U.S. Click the image to see part 2 of the video — the local sisters appear at 1:19. For part 1 of the video, see the end of this entry.

The women continue to work in youth ministry, teacher formation, summer camps and coordinating social services focused on migrants and immigrants.

“The charism is to work worth the poor and abandoned children,” Sr. Roble Cavazoas said. That’s essentially how she spends her afternoons and weekends.

Sr. Roble works with the parish’s outreach program, primarily at the nearby St. John Bosco Center. That’s where she oversees some 80 children ages 4 to 14 for 90 minutes during the week.

The room gets so crowded that the first kids to arrive move sets of tables and chairs outside.

Sr. Roble recruits the children — sometimes by blowing the horn of her pickup truck on her way through the struggling neighborhood — to the center for recreation, snacks enrichment lessons and homework help. The rest come running and climbing over fences as soon as they see Sr. Roble’s truck parked outside the center.

Her primary mission is to show the kids living in a gang-infested area disciplined love to keep them out of trouble. It’s worked. The first alum of the center to graduate college will put on her cap and gown Dec. 20.

Inside the cramped 30-foot-by-30-foot building, the phrase “love changes everything” arches itself around a giant crucifix.

Sr. Teresita knows firsthand that it’s the sisters’ love that has formed generations of Catholics in America. She was one of them.

“They always took us girls as if we were the only ones to be served,” Sr. Teresita said.

To learn more about the Salesian sisters’ arrival to the U.S. and their continued ministry here, watch part 1 of the video tribute.