2009 and Looking Forward.....

At the close of 2009, I'm pleased to announce that this year the after school program at the youth center had over 6600 visits from over 250 individual middle and high school students! These numbers are great, and we're already showing improvement over last year. In January 2010, we had an increase of 102 visits over the previous January. Our Elementary Day numbers are starting to escalate as well - the next one is scheduled for Feb. 20

We ended our holiday cereal drive at the beginning of Feb. and the students collected over 50 boxes of cereal. The High School students donated 2 more boxes of cereal than the middle school, so they will receive a pizza party as a reward. We will soon be offering many more community service opportunities, including the Linus Project (making blankets for infants and children), our Community Clean-Up Days starting in March, helping open the park at a local amusement park, as well as continuing community service opportunities inside The Center.

We still REALLY need volunteers!!!! We usually have 30-50 kids a night, and can really use the help!! You don't have to volunteer daily or make a long-term obligation - you can volunteer an afternoon a week, a month, or just whenever you can! If you don't want to volunteer with the kids, but have gifts of repair or baking or pretty much any other skill, please contact me and we'll figure out how you can help!

We've been asked many times for a list of things we need, and I've compiled as complete a list as I can. Please see the following categories to see what we need for each.

Volunteer Needs:

• Gym volunteer - we're just about to open a half-court basketball court. We need a 21+ volunteer to supervise and officiate pickup games.
• Sign in/Sign out volunteer - help students sign in and out, make sure all students sign in
• Student Store volunteer - help the Youth Council by overseeing student store operations
• Repairs volunteer - with 6600+ students in The Center a year, we always have repair needs.
  
• Homework help/Mentor - assist students in grades 6-12 with homework
  

Snacks and Snack Supplies:

• Pretzels, popcorn, fresh fruit, baked goods, individually wrapped snacks (chips, cookies, crackers, etc)
• Gallon jugs of juice, water, or lemonade, bottles of pop, other drinks
• Peanut butter, jelly (sometimes bread - contact us to find out about this need!)
• Microwave snacks (ez mac, etc)
• Paper plates, bowls, napkins, paper towels, toilet paper
• Plastic silverware and cups
• Clorox wipes, hand soap, dish soap, germX
• Rolls of butcher paper

General Use Equipment:

• Pool sticks/chalk/equipment
• Ping pong balls/paddles/equipment
• Foosball balls, air hockey pucks
  
• Markers, crayons (washable), notebook and construction paper, scissors
• Beads, elastic cord, crafting supplies

Used Equipment:

• Any video game system, or video games for PS2 or Xbox360
• Old computers/computer parts/computer games
• Teen-appropriate/oriented books

Please contact me if you have any donations or wish to volunteer! We should have a volunteer calendar up soon!

-Julie Arseneault
Director, NCYC
756-5087