“Are you kidding?  What’s Stupidville?”  After her initial confusion learning about Steubenville conferences, youth minister Carolyn Anch decided to take a group of about 12 teens with her.  Thirteen years later, that group of 12 has grown to 124 and the youth group has become a family.

Without youth ministers, Steubenville wouldn’t be possible.  They are the ones to continue the work when everyone goes home on Sunday and the ones who have been doing prep work for months leading up to the conference.  Carolyn is one of those rockstar youth ministers.

To be featured as one of our “Humans of SteubySTL”, you don’t necessarily need to be a human. Just ask Cardboard Pope Francis. We’d like to introduce you to another interesting character that we found at this conference, Steuby Baby Groot.

There’s one problem that arises pretty quickly in interviewing Steuby Baby Groot – he has a fairly limited vocabulary.  He is only capable of saying three words: “I am Groot.”  Unless, of course, you press a button on his back, allowing him to sing, “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5.  So, he is tough to interview.  Fortunately, there were two girls from his parish ready to translate for us.

If you’ve ever been in the bookstore at Steubenville, you’ve probably noticed Francie Gosser. She is one of the many bookstore volunteers; this year will be her fourth time working there. Francie is a lifelong member of St. Peter’s Parish in Kirkwood, Missouri.

She loves working in the Steubenville bookstore as a cashier. She gets to encourage today’s teens to be fearless in their Catholic identity. Francie says it is a grace from God to help the teenagers in the checkout line of the bookstore as a form of evangelization. She loves being able to compliment a teenage girl on the choice of religious jewelry that she picked out, or encourage a teenage guy to buy a book he is interested in. Francie has many favorite items in the bookstore; she loves everything from certain t-shirts, to religious bracelets and medals, to the foam kneeling pads (which you better buy quickly, before they run out!)

If he were a Pokémon, he’d be Snorlax– “You know the one that sleeps all the time?”– the faint aroma of coffee beans makes more sense.

Making the 500-mile pilgrimage to Steubenville Mid-America from the Diocese of Sioux City in Iowa is our next Human of SteubySTL, seminarian Travis Crotty. He’s a four-time attendee of the Steubenville Conference, second-time chaperone. But he’s seasoned for sure: “The first time, I was woken up by a phone call at 1am by a participant that one of his friends was playing PokémonGo outside.” And then we talk a lot about Pokémon and sleep, which naturally leads us to one of Travis’ greatest passions: gourmet coffee. His go-to? Guatamalen pour-over.

Dozens of priests distribute Communion to thousands of people during every Steubenville conference weekend. If you’ve ever wondered how that manages to go so smoothly, talk to Father Schumer and Father Sullivan. Both priests spend their conference weekends helping the seminarians to coordinate all of the Masses, Processions, and Confessions.