One person's dream to keep young men and women safe from the likes of Al Capone leads to ministry that changes thousands of lives each year. CYM has come a long way since those early boxing and basketball leagues.

Growing from a local organization to an incorporated non profit, CYO gets a its first program director and fundraising begins.

Tuck Mulrooney leads CYO and the community in Marian rallies that bring more than 20,000 young people and adults together in Wilmington. The event was so successful, it was moved to Delaware Park in its second year.

Large delegations of young people attended the national CYO conventions and the local CYO because a member agency of what is now the United Way of Delaware. Sports programs were expanded and CYO enjoyed the ministry of three diocesan directors during the 1960s.

A full time priest director takes the helm and CYO staff takes on the challenges of youth ministry as defined by US Bishops. The decade ends with a move to a new building.

Volleybal is added to our list of sports. Service projects are expanded. A new director is named. Youth Ministry/CYO begins to take shape as the staff responds to the new directions set by American Bishops.

The number of paid youth ministry staff in the diocese continued to grow, so YM/CYO staff spent time offering leadership development opportunities in addition to other programming. A new bishop was named for Wilmington and the end of the decade saw the first lay person named as diocesan director.

The greatest challenge for the staff of YM/CYO in the early 2000s was to make sure the work of the office moved outside Wilmington to the far reaches of the diocese.

Look how far CYO has come from its early days as a simple athletic league to a driving force in ministry to, with and for our young people in Delaware and on Maryland's Eastern Shore.