The ICYC Experience

The Idaho Catholic Youth Conference, more commonly referred to as ICYC, is a youth event held annually at the Ford Center in Nampa. Usually, students attend with their separate parishes, but this year BK decided to take the sophomore class as their retreat. Mrs. Horn explains, is that “Our sophomore retreat was planned for 2 days after ICYC, and we were looking at what we wanted to do and thought, there’s this great diocesan event happening for high school students already, and why not take advantage and create an opportunity for our sophomores to come and have that experience together.” She goes on to say that the event “[is] a combination of how we can expose our sophomores to these great speakers and create an opportunity for them to stay in hotels together and have fun.”

ICYC lasts three days–Friday evening, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning. Most groups stay in hotels in the area for Friday and Saturday night. Many church groups come from out of town. Additionally, many parishes from the Treasure Valley stay in hotels to experience the feeling of being on a retreat.

The weekend was full of song, prayer, and fun. Mass was held once on Saturday and again on Sunday. Two Bishops were present during parts of ICYC–our own Bishop Peter Christensen and the Bishop of the Diocese of Baker in Oregon, Bishop Liam Cary. Adoration took place as well, in the form of a procession where priests led the Blessed Sacrament throughout the area, as well as living stations of the Cross. In addition, Confession was available several times during the weekend, and a makeshift chapel was set up in one corner of the building.

The focus this year was: “Behold the Lamb of God.” The conference revolved around the Eucharist and God’s presence in it. The t-shirt given to the teens was blue and depicted hands holding up the host, in a background of red, orange, and yellow. The theme song was called I Thank God, which was played many times throughout ICYC, complete with hand gestures and dance moves.

Leading the music was a Catholic hip-hop band called FoundNation, the Catholic rapper Joe Melendrez, and musician Ike Ndolo. Many of the talks were held by Chika Anyanwu, a Nigerian Catholic evangelist, according to her website, along with Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, Ike Ndolo, and members of FoundNation. Chika shared stories from her own life, and the God Squad–teens who helped lead ICYC–gave speeches dressed up as various young saints.

The lives of the saints were also called into focus. There were many banners surrounding the area and members of the God Squad gave several accounts of the lives of holy young people such as Blessed Carlo Acutis. In addition, the five decades of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary were prayed at intervals throughout the conference.

Another feature of the event was an area set off for tables and booths for Catholic businesses, charities, and even some religious orders. Some of these included Joe Melendrez’s merchandise shop, the Sisters of Saint Mary in Oregon, Birthright, Students for Life, and the Divine Word Missionaries, to name but a few. Memorably, Bishop Christensen came on stage to advertise a pair of sunglasses that the ICYC shop was selling.

But, what many students probably wonder is, will BK continue holding the retreat at ICYC next year? Mrs. Horn’s answer is that, “I think that because of spring break, our campus min has not had a chance to debrief. Our hope was for this year to gather feedback from sophomores to see what we recommended. This was kind of a trial run [to] see how it went, whether they enjoyed it or not…we’re still trying to gather that data.”

Maybe you’ve heard someone speak of this “icy-weisy” and wondered what on earth that word means, or you’re familiar with it and have even gone a few times. Either way, the Idaho Catholic Youth Conference is a uniting, inspiring weekend of fun and camaraderie that you are highly encouraged to attend.