• Contact our office at info@lourdesvolunteers.org  or (315) 476-0026.
• Provide your name, location, address, phone and e-mail. Note the best way for us to reach you.
• Let us know if you would like to receive our informational packet on Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience™, full of information about Lourdes and North American Lourdes Volunteers, which you can use to review with your priest/principal.

• Getting permission from your parish pastor or principal is the first step to host a Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience™ in your parish or school.
• One person must serve as a point of contact or “host,” communicating, planning and facilitating in conjunction with our Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage team. Some hosts choose to form a committee at their parish/school to share the necessary volunteer tasks, including promoting the event and recruiting volunteers to help. 

If the hosting parish/school could provide the following, North American Lourdes Volunteers would be most grateful:

• Extension cord and multi-outlet cord
• Screen (larger the better) for viewing the images
• 3-4 glass Lourdes Water bowls (small salad bowl size)
• 2-3 baskets for petitions and free will offerings
• 1 table for the Grotto Rocks and Lourdes Water
• 2 small tables for the projector and computer
• Microphone for the presenter/guide (lapel-type is best)
• Candles – optional for the recitation of one decade of the Rosary. Please seek permission from your Pastor for the use of candles.
• Pencils for writing individual petitions

Volunteers from the hosting parish/school are needed:

• 3-4 volunteers to hold the Grotto Rocks for procession
• 3-4 volunteers to hold the Lourdes Water bowls for procession
• 2 volunteers to distribute and collect the petitions
• 2 volunteers to distribute the Virtual Pilgrimage Programs and Plenary Indulgence
• 2 volunteers to distribute the Lourdes Water bottles and green prayer sheets at the end
• 2 ushers to direct flow for processions and for lights
• Music: organist and/or vocalist to play/sing Marian and Benediction hymns

Lourdes Volunteers never charges a fee for sharing the Message of Lourdes. However, we do request a free-will offering in parishes to help defray our travel, print and shipping costs. Generous parish offerings also:

• Support Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experiences™ in school and prisons, where donations are not accepted
• Help to cover the cost of shipping Lourdes Water from the Grotto Spring to our home office in Syracuse, NY, where it is bottled by volunteers and shipped to your location to be shared at your Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience™

So much depends on parish location, time of year and our availability. Usually, we recommend allowing for anywhere between six weeks to three months (or in some cases, up to one year in advance) to arrange a well-planned Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience™.  On rare occasions, we have been able to accommodate a spontaneous request in a location where we are present.

For correctional institutions, we are usually hosted by the local prison ministry or Deacon. Please note that advance time is required for our Virtual Pilgrimage Guide to undergo identification and approval measures according to the institution’s visitor practices.

Our Guides do their best to accommodate all invitations year-round, as they are able. However, most take place from January to May and September to early December, often in conjunction with a Marian feast day, parish celebration or other occasion/season in the Liturgical Calendar.

Lourdes Volunteers offers Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experiences™ only with the permission of the local Bishop.  A letter of request and endorsement from the Bishop of the Syracuse Diocese is sent to each Diocese where  Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experiences™ have been requested.

• Prisons
• Hospices
• Nursing homes
• Universities
• Conferences
• Potential volunteer groups
• and more!

We often share the Message of Lourdes with grade schools, high schools and universities.  The experience is geared to each specific grade level. It is common for us to present at a Catholic school during the school day and to the associated parish that evening.