Guidelines For Establishing A Pure Love Club At Your School

The mission of the PLC is to serve the school and community by living a chaste/abstinent lifestyle and encouraging others to do the same.

The time commitments and responsibilities of a PLC faculty sponsor are minimal. Sponsors must have a concern for the health and well being of the students and a wholehearted dedication to the chastity/abstinence message. In addition, sponsors are required to be present at all meetings of the club. The sponsor must also assist the club to work with the  administration to bring in guest speakers. Any formal off-campus events must be chaperoned.

Yes. Affiliating the PLC with another faith‑based club on campus, such as a Pro‑Life Club, Bible Club, Campus Ministry Club, FCA Club, SADD Club etc. is perfectly acceptable.

The PLC will be involved in all activities that promote chastity. Activities can include, but are not limited to the following: sponsorship of chastity speakers for school assemblies, promotion of chastity videos and information for the student body, chastity presentations to   junior high schools, chastity awareness weeks, media events, essay contests, oratorical contests, achievement report contests, etc.

The PLC should meet eight times per semester during lunch (or some other appropriate time to be determined by the sponsor). The first meeting of the month is for planning and delegation of work for the projects, and the second meeting is for the execution of the project. Beyond the regular PLC meetings will be activities (social, fundraising, apostolic, etc.) to be determined by the club.

This may be determined by the individual clubs, as a way to raise funds. But, no one may be denied entrance to the club for financial reasons.

Each member must sign the Pure Love Promise card, maintain a chaste lifestyle, and attend the meetings.

Officers shall be president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and one representative leader from each of the four classes (Senior, Junior, Sophomore, Freshman). They shall serve for one year or until their successors are installed. Besides these leaders, all members are to be involved in at least one of the following committees: Speakers Committee, Project Committee, Public Relations Committee.

.     The President will preside over each monthly meeting, and direct the club in achieving their goals for the school year. The President will work with faculty and community sponsors to ensure outside speakers are arranged for at least two meetings per semester. The President will promote the chastity message throughout the school year.

.     The Vice-President will stand in place of the President when he/she is absent, and assist the President in all club activities.

.     The Secretary Treasurer will keep books and accounts for any funds obtained though fundraising, membership fees,, donations, etc.

.     The Representative Class Leaders will serve as a link between their entire class year (i.e. freshman, sophomore, etc.) and the PLC. They will be in charge of reminding the members of the PLC who are in their class to attend the meetings and functions. They will oversee any activities that are directed to their class in particular.

.     The Speakers Committee will develop their speaking abilities by giving presentations to the club and to other members of the student body (described below). They will assist in the planning of local club speakers for club meetings or school assemblies.

.     The Project Committee will formulate worthwhile activities that promote teen abstinence and shall recommend the activities to the club. The activities must meet the approval of the school sponsor, and be completed with the aid of the club membership. They will present plans and programs at all regular meetings.

.     The Public Relations Committee will devise effective plans to obtain new members on a regular basis to provide the necessary support for club related programs. They will arrange social activities for the club members to participate in, and will interact with other local chastity clubs, if applicable.

The agenda of the first meeting will be as follows: The Sponsor will lead in a prayer, and will provide the overview of the PLC mission statement and goals for the year. He will explain the different offices and committees and lead the club members in a vote to determine which students will hold the various positions, and which students wish to work in which committee. Every student must be involved in a committee. He will give an overview of the goals for the upcoming months and schedule the next meeting. Following the meeting he will be available to the new leaders for any questions they may have about their tasks. After this meeting, he steps aside as an advisor and the President will lead each meeting from now on.

Each meeting opens with prayer. For the first formal meeting, the president will explain the month's goal and the various committees will break into their groups in order to plan what they can do to achieve the month's goal. If their committee's focus is not applicable to the goal of the month, they will aid the project committee. Following the group sessions, announcements are made by various committees on what they plan to do. Each committee is to have a speaker to present the ideas of the committee. In future meetings, they add what they have done since the prior meeting, and what they plan to do by the next one. This is followed by a time of formation, and/or guest speaker. Each meeting closes with prayer.

The sponsor and leaders of the club may determine what they think is beneficial for the club in regards to formation. Suggestions include guest speakers, discussing a chapter of Pure Love, group sharing, testimonies, or using a chastity curriculum, or for faith based clubs; Scripture reading, Rosary, etc.

Those who wish to join should begin attending the club meetings. At the beginning of each semester there will be a commitment ceremony, where following a meeting or Mass at school, the priest, campus minister, or other faculty sponsor will lead the students in a explanation, (and prayer for the faith based clubs) and time of signing the commitment card. All students are given a copy of Pure Love, if they do not already own one. Students are encouraged to get a chastity ring.

The goal of the PLC each year is simple: reach every single person on your campus with the message of chastity.

(If you club was initiated some time after September, the club should still begin with September's activities and move forward from there.

September: Public Awareness Month: The first month of each semester will be a membership drive, where you will advertise the PLC to the school by means of banners, posters, articles in the school newspaper, announcements over the PA, having an information table at lunch, etc.

October: Fundraising Month: Do an activity or two to raise money for your club for the semester. In order to reach every member of your school and many within your community, you need money. See Question 18 for how to do this. Should you do a public fundraising event, such as a car wash, make sure that you have materials on hand (posters, flyers. Etc ... ) so that the patrons will know where their money is going, and where they can send more., if they wish.

November: Pure Love Month: Selected upperclassmen will speak to the underclassmen religion classes on the benefits of a chaste lifestyle, and selected underclassmen will speak at the junior high/middle school religion classes if this is available. The faculty sponsor may assist in having the teachers give you permission to speak to their classes. Place chastity brochures, flyers around campus (i.e. "A Letter from your future husband/wife" in the bathroom stalls.)

December: STD Awareness Month: Use some of your funds to promote awareness of the STD problem and the ineffectiveness of condoms. Place flyers in halls, on bulletin boards, bathrooms, classrooms. All materials to be distributed must be approved by faculty sponsor. See Question 19 for where to obtain these materials.

January: Public Awareness Month: same as September. Plus major fundraising event in preparation for February's activity. A good way to kick off any semester is for the young men in the club to raise enough money to buy a white rose for every girl in the school. The young men then write "you're worth waiting for" on a ribbon tied to the rose. In order to get these roses to the young women, the members of the club can get faculty permission to stay late after school, or to come before anyone else, and tape each rose to each girl's locker.

February: Pure Love Month: Use money from fundraising event to have a creative chastity message on a local billboard near campus.

On the week of Valentine's tie white ribbons around trees on campus. Publish articles, editorials on chastity in the school newspaper (go to http:www.abstinencedu.com/f0.cfm?n=5&s=3 for help in writing an article or speech), If anyone in the club has experience designing a web site, you can put one up and advertise it. See how many hits you get, and have members write their testimonies on the site. Provide links to great chastity sites.

March: Teacher awareness month: Promote the videos and curriculum to religion teachers. Talk to your youth ministers about bringing in a chastity speaker and setting up a chastity conference.

April: STD Awareness Month: Same as November.

May: Pledge card month: Distribute pledge cards to all students and single teachers and administrators. Have a commitment ceremony the week of prom in the Church during a lunch period. Advertise especially that couples come and sign them together. Pass out tracts on chastity, letters from future wife/husband.

Clubs can do any number of activities to raise money to accomplish its goals. The National Abstinence Clearinghouse recommends the following fundraising ideas to bring abstinence‑until ­marriage presentations to your community.

1. There is $4.00 per student available through the federal government Drug Free Schools Program on a yearly basis. These monies can be received through your state department of education. Check with your department to see when these funds must be requested. In many states, there are also drug, tobacco and alcohol monies available on a yearly basis through your state department of education or your department of drug abuse prevention. Both of these monies often have to be requested in the summer preceding the following school year by written request through the school superintendent.

2. Each school has student activities funds that may be available for this purpose.

3. Many schools have Coca‑Cola or other vending machines. The principal of that school is given $500‑$700 from the profits of the machine to use for discretionary purposes such as this.

4. Churches are very interested in prevention efforts, but often do not have programs of their own in place. They are usually interested in helping in any way they can. You may also see if you pastor from church is willing to allow you to speak after Mass and take up a collection.

5. Service organizations such as the Lion's Clubs, Knights of Columbus, and Rotary are usually interested in helping with prevention efforts in their community.

6. Parent organizations such as PTA's, PTO's, or Parent Communication Networks are willing supporters of prevention efforts.

7. Occasionally there are private benefactors who have a great interest in prevention efforts and are willing to make a contribution to your efforts.

If you would like more information about getting abstinence‑until‑marriage resources,, please contact Abstinence Clearinghouse at 605.335.3643.

There are several great web sites where you can order info on chastity and STD's. For starters:

Letters to future wife/husband & other chastity stuff: http://www.rockforlife.org

Lovematters.com newspaper (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) http://www.lovermatters.com/ 1‑800‑858­-3040.

Info, videos, posters, brochures, etc. on STI)s and abstinence:

http://www.medinstitute.org/products/index.htm

http://www.projectreality.org/products/index3.html

http://www.friendsfirst.org/

I promise to myself, my future spouse, and my family that I will save the gift of my sexuality until I am married. I choose to live a life of purity and respect for my body and for the people I date.

Faith based clubs:

Believing that sex is sacred, I promise to God, my future spouse, and our future children that I will save the gift of my sexuality from now until I enter the sacrament of marriage. I choose to glorify God with my body and pursue a life of purity, trusting that the Lord is never out done in generosity.

Catholic Answers has created chastity commitment cards out of ATM card‑quality material. These may be obtained through Catholic Answers, at 1-888-291-8000, http://www.catholic.com/

Dear young men and women, I want to thank you for having the courage and generosity of heart to become members of the Pure Love Club. In the past few weeks, I am in the process of setting up hundreds of these clubs around the country. By the time you graduate, I hope to have clubs set up in every state in the country. That is my task, and the following is yours:

There are about 19 million high school students in the Unites States right now. In a good year, I can only reach about 100,,000 of them. Of those students, I give one talk, and then I probably will not be able to see them again before they graduate. The mission of the Pure Love club is to take the spark that was caused by my chastity talk, and fan it into a fire on campus. Each month you will be given projects as a club that will spread the message of purity to everyone in your campus and to tens,, and possibly hundreds, of thousands of people in your city. Many of you will be formed to become speakers to touch the lives of many other students in your city. Others will be called upon to use your talents of whatever kind to spread the message through other means.

Although this group is called a "club" it is more of an apostolate: a group of apostles sent out for a task. May these words of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul 11 encourage you as you become the builders of a new humanity:

" It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise, it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices; the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your live, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

Dear young people, have the sacred ambition to become holy like he is holy! Young people of every continent do not be afraid to be the saints of the new millennium! May the gospel become your most precious treasure ... may most Holy Mary give you the strength and wisdom to be able to speak to God and of God."

Pope John Paul 11: "I would ask that you read this quote at the opening of each meeting. Listen to his call, and follow it. Welcome to the front lines of the new sexual revolution. Do not be afraid. In the words of St. Catherine of Sienna, "If you become what you should be, you will set the world on fire."God bless you, and be assured of my prayers.