The 8th Annual Youth Days Celebration with Pope John Paul II

“Papal Mass ills gobbled medical supplies.” This was the headline for an article written in the Rocky Mountain News tabloid August 19, 1993, referring to Pope John Paul II visiting Denver for the 8^th Annual Youth Day Celebration. The first sentence read: “At least 15,000 units of saline solution were used to treat dehydrated pilgrims at last weekend’s papal vigil and Mass.”

Reading this article gave me feelings of mixed emotions. Just knowing that I played a significant part in helping thousands of people in need of medical attention was indeed thrilling. In addition, seeing hundreds of people, who had collapsed from dehydration and many others who were suffering from various ailments and minor injuries, being treated by all of the volunteer medical professionals was heart breaking.

Imagine, youth from around the world, hundreds of different cultures visiting Denver, Colorado, for the Eighth Annual Youth Day Celebration, the historical first time a Pope has ever visited North America for this event. For this reason the Archdiocese of Denver planned for a variety of celebratory activities to be held early in the day in downtown Denver, then to be moved to Cherry Creek State Park for the remainder of the three day celebration. Pope John Paul II was to begin the Youth Day weekend events with an address to the youth of the world at Mile High Stadium, followed by a ten mile trek to Cherry Creek State Park.

 After Pope John II addressed the 75,000 person capacity crowd at Mile High Stadium and said a special prayer for the world’s youth, it was time for the Pontiff to be flown by helicopter to the park. For those Americans and their foreign counterparts who had chosen to participate, this was the beginning of the walk to the state park. This trek had been carefully planned and routed to divert traffic around the trekkers’ path to keep them isolated and out of harm’s way.

Saturday morning, while helping a friend and colleague repair his motorcycle, my on-call cell phone rang. It was the company’s warehouse manager with instructions to meet him at the warehouse. Because I was riding my own motorcycle this day, I was unaware that hundreds of people walking to the state park were falling unconscious along the paths and roadways.

After arriving at the warehouse, my manager briefed me on the problems the Americans were having with becoming increasingly dehydrated while walking in the above-normal, sweltering, August heat. He went on to explain that Pepsi Cola and M & M Mars had placed an abundance of their vending machines along the paths and at the major food stores located at both ends of the state park entrances. My manager also explained that most of the American youth did not prepare or dress properly for extreme heat. He explained that the majority of American youth were dressed in poolside attire rather than light colored or white walking or hiking clothing, which can prevent excess heat loss, slow dehydration, and block some of the sun’s harmful UV rays.