By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
SOLON — Girls ages 9 to 13 are invited to participate in The Cycle Show, an educational, interactive, multimedia fertility awareness workshop.
The daylong workshop, sponsored by the St. Mary-Solon Culture of Life Committee, is a Guiding Star Project program that aims to equip girls with the knowledge of what is happening inside their bodies in relation to puberty. Guiding Star describes this life-affirming program as a desirable addition to the standard sex education given in schools.
“The reason (the program) drew our attention was because the mission of our culture of life ministry in Solon is to affirm, educate and advocate God’s plan for fertility and the value of human life,” said Brenda Platz, a committee member. “This is an age-appropriate program that helps girls better understand and thereby embrace and respect the changes that will be happening as they mature. When girls have (that) education, it provides empowerment.”
The youth presentation will take place Aug. 2 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Solon parish. A parent program will take place Aug. 1 from 7-8:30 p.m. As an alternative, parents may participate in a webinar July 27 at 8 p.m. Guiding Star hosts the parent program to help parents address their daughters’ concerns through learning new vocabulary and context that can easily be used at home to offer support and affirmation. “Even parents, I think, will learn things they had not learned before,” Platz said.
The cost is $50 for the youth program and $10 for the parent program. Scholarships are available. Parents are welcome to participate in the parent program before deciding whether to send their daughters to the workshop. Registration forms are available at https://guidingstarproject.com/cycle-show/
Parents seeking financial assistance may email colsolonstmary@gmail.com.
Platz hopes the program will help open communication between parents and daughters and help young women appreciate and not fear puberty and fertility. “If this program can prevent future generations of couples from needing to use in-vitro fertilization or artificial birth control, and if that could be avoided by embracing natural fertility, that would be great!”
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