SPRING 2020
LESSENING ANXIETY AND BUILDING RESILIENCE has helped tens of thousands of young people practice confronting challenges, handle anxiety and discomfort, and weather their frustrations while also naming their feelings. At PBC, countless groups have worked together solving problems through initiative and challenge course activities, dealing with frustration as they struggle to communicate and problem-solve effectively. Students took healthy risks and experienced discomfort, anxiety, and fear as they climbed ladders into the tree canopy before ziplining across a rushing stream. With this discomfort came gains in confidence, grit, and resilience.
Summer participants face their fears and overcome challenges with their peers and PBC facilitators.
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rom our earliest days, the Princeton Summer Camp/Princeton-Blairstown Center (PBC) has almost never missed a summer of providing character-building experiences to our region’s most underserved young people. William Selden’s history, “The Princeton Sumer Camp 1908-1975” reminds us that the last time the organization did not conduct a summer program was from 19421945, due to World War II. Today we are facing a new challenge, COVID-19. Based on New Jersey’s extension of the stay-at-home order and other factors, we made the heartbreaking decision to cancel this summer’s award-winning Summer Bridge Program. We operate in one of the hardest hit states, and are unlikely to “get back to normal” anytime soon. Yet we take pride in knowing that, thanks to your support, PBC has already helped so many young people develop the skills necessary to
face this unprecedented threat. What remains clear during these challenging and uncertain times is that young and old alike need vast reserves of grit and resilience to survive and thrive. All adults have varying levels of anxiety related to the coronavirus, some of which trickles down to our young people as we live and work together day after day in the same house or apartment trying to do our work (if we are lucky enough to still have a job), and engage in remote learning. Children especially need grit now more than ever. Mental health professionals tell us that the best way to help prepare young people to succeed in a stressful and challenging world is not to overly shelter them, but to help them deal with feelings of anxiety and discomfort in positive ways. Thankfully, over the past few years alone, PBC
Over the past few months our staff has pivoted to provide free weekly social emotional learning (SEL) lesson plans to teachers and youth development specialists who are scrambling to provide distance learning for students. Our SEL lessons help students identify their discomfort and develop strategies to overcome their fears and achieve academic goals. Additionally, our staff has been creating virtual environmental education lessons for students to enjoy at no cost from their apartments and homes. Our programs, whether virtual or in person, are provided free or at a reduced cost for young people from low-income communities. Like all nonprofit organizations, the Center has been hard hit by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. If you can, please consider a more generous gift during these very difficult times. Your gift will provide young people with the grit and resiliency skills to overcome challenges today and long into the future. With gratitude, Sarah Tantillo, Ed.D. Board Chair
Pam Gregory President & CEO