Donna Salloga 1971 - 1974

New deanery Youth Ministry coordinator inspired by 'watching kids grow in faith'

Written by Dan McWilliams

Donna Jones

New Chattanooga Deanery Youth Ministry coordinator Donna Jones said she hopes to bring in priests and those in adult ministries within parishes to work with young people “so we can come together as one church.”

“I want to get on the same page because it’s not youth ministry just for youth ministry,” she said. “It should be religion teachers, priests, the Knights, and the women’s groups—everyone should come together as one for youth ministry. Kids today aren’t the church tomorrow; they’re the church today because they have so many great ideas.”

Mrs. Jones, the youth minister and director of religious education at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in South Pittsburg, succeeds Wendy Ransom as the deanery coordinator.

She was appointed coordinator in time to oversee a major Chattanooga Deanery youth endeavor: the God Camps held each summer at Harrison Bay State Park. Although her coordinator role puts in her charge mainly of middle and high school youth ministry in the deanery’s 12 parishes, Mrs. Jones said wishes she could do more with fifth- and sixth-graders, the youngest age group represented at the summer camps.

“They’re like a breath of fresh air,” she said. “They love to learn.”

She introduced her deanery’s members of the Diocesan Youth Ministry Advisory Council (DYMAC) at last month’s diocesan Youth Mass. This year’s DYMAC members are all new to the council. Mrs. Jones said she was “impressed how they bonded so well in our training day. All the kids have such great ideas for this year.”

Mrs. Jones, a former member of St. Jude Parish in Chattanooga, lives in Jasper. She is widowed with two sons, Adam, 22, and Dale, 19. Both attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

In her more than 10 years in youth ministry, she said she’s found that “watching kids grow in their faith gives me inspiration.”

“They don’t bring the politics and all that stuff that working with adults would usually bring. They’ve got great ideas, and if we just help them follow through on those ideas, we’ll have a much better world than we have today.”