GET INVOLVED!

By Leah Victorino

The Boise community is ripe with opportunities for people to engage, both indoors and outdoors. It seems like there is something for everyone, including our young people. For children and families interested in connecting and contributing to the world around them, there are plenty of options to get involved.

Most kids spend a lot of time at their schools. Since they already have established relationships and familiarity with the setting, schools are a natural entry point for students seeking to initiate their community involvement.

Whittier Elementary School sixth grader, Ava Martin, talked about how she began volunteering. “I learned about the special needs kids…and it’s so fun to see their faces light up once they accomplish something new. There’s a bond that each sixth grader has with their kid, getting to know them and their personalities,” she said.

Martin and some of her friends joined the yearbook team this year too. “I wanted to make something that my classmates and I can look back on and its quality,” she explained. Encourage kids to begin by engaging in the spaces around them and see what they find.

The community benefit organization Girls on the Run Treasure Valley is a national organization with a local presence serving programs for 3rd-8th graders. Naomi Aitken coached Girls on the Run at a local elementary school for 3rd-5th grades and found that the organization “has a really great curriculum that teaches friendship, confidence, compromise, positive self-talk, goal setting, conflict resolution…a wide range of topics and [it was] really impressive how well the girls took the lessons.” Aitken is a school psychologist and active outdoor recreationalist, and appreciates how the coaches are guided to incorporate running and movement into social and emotional learning for the children. “Plus, the community aspect has been great,” she added. “It’s fun seeing the girls and their families out and about now that we’re connected.”

Boise has a stellar cycling community, whether it’s mountain biking, road cycling, or simply kids riding around the neighborhood. When kids have a bicycle, their world expands to what they can reach on two wheels. Additionally, if they want to go beyond general recreation and bike clubs, older kids could practice their advocacy skills by getting involved to influence bike infrastructure at the city or highway district level.

If your little tykes are in the market for a new ride, hit up a local bike shop like Reed Cycle. You’ll find friendly, experienced bike pros who will find the kind of equipment that suits your needs.

Treasure Valley Family YMCA has a wide range of activities for children, some that may be unexpected. Travis Dryden, his wife, and their four children are longtime family membership holders at the YMCA, simply referred to by most locals as “The Y.” Dryden also served as the Marketing Chair for the Board of Directors and said that the Y is so much more than many people imagine.

“It’s not all swim lessons…think youth leadership opportunities, exposure, and enrichment,” he said. The YMCA’s core values—caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility—are woven through all of the camps, before- and after-school programs, seasonal sports teams, and other activities. Lifetime sports are a big focus because the organization recognizes that there are a lot of competitive options, “so if you’re not into the whole traveling [youth sports] scene, the Y offers more foundational sports, pickleball to fun runs” Dryden said. As a not-for-profit community benefit organization, the Y is a great value for families and offers a sliding scale to accommodate as many households as possible.

In our area, you will find scouting activities for all kids grades K-12 with volunteer-led troops throughout the valley. Girls Scouts of the USA: Programs focus on STEM, the outdoors, life skills, and entrepreneurship. Boise seventh grader, Eva Necoechea, has been a member of Girl Scouts of Silver Sage since 2019. In addition to the cookies, she said that “volunteering at the Idaho Food Bank was fun and it made me feel like I was actually helping with something because we packed tons of boxes—that made me feel accomplished.” This year, her troop worked together to prepare crates to ship off to families and last year, they collected pet items and made blankets for the Idaho Humane Society. Another local Girl Scout troop saw a need for a Little Free Library and opted to install one at a nearby elementary school so that kids of varying socioeconomic backgrounds could have books to give and take.

Boy Scouts of America: As the motto says, Boy Scouts are all about being prepared.

Malcom Pyle first joined Cub Scouts because he said, “I wanted to do something with my pocket knife so I got into whittling.” Motivated by this new skill, he said he really liked the camping part and learning about forensics with the Boise Police Department. The organization is preparing kids to appreciate the outdoors and be active in the community.

The City of Boise has a diverse mix of programs for kids of any age. They offer art classes, drop-in basketball or volleyball, summer camps of all kinds, and so much more. City residents enjoy special rates, but non-residents are welcome as well. Check out the extensive list of affordable options from gardening to ballet to adaptive adventures.