TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - Next month, 350 catholic faithful from northwest Ohio will be heading east to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of the Families and a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the Pope.
WTOL 11 will be joining the pilgrims from the Toledo Dioceses, including Bishop Daniel Thomas, and will be bringing you all the coverage from the Pope's first visit to the U.S.
One of the 15 lucky scholarship families attending the trip is the Blalocks. Sara and Carson, along with their three children, Carl, Charlotte, and Rosa, are excited for their meeting with the Pope. Rosa is even practicing her wave.
"My husband said, 'we're applying and we are going to go home and do that right now.' And I said, 'I don't know how we can afford that and so much time away' and I mean, you know, 300 excuses. He said, 'we're going to go.' So we applied and we got the scholarship," said Sara.
"Any chance to go see the Pope when you don't need a passport is just a wonderful opportunity," said Carson.
Long time members of Saint Mary's in the Village of Edgerton, about an hour and half southwest of Toledo, the family of five is excited for their first family trip to Philadelphia.
"It's going to be mind boggling, especially for my kids," said Carson.
"There's three million people going to show up in one venue and that's intimidating, because here we live in a town that's like 2,000 people. But they'll be more people in our hotel we are staying in than there is in our whole town," said Sara.
It will definitely be a new experience, but Sara hopes one that changes them for the better.
"Seeing the Pope and being with all those Catholic people, it's going to change my children's lives. They're going to see a bigger picture of the church that I cannot give them here and that's really, really exciting," said Sara.
Read more family stories here.
