Silver Bay YMCA Ticonderoga Teen Center February Newsletter

SILVER BAY YMCA TICONDERGA TEEN CENTER

OUR MISSION

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Silver Bay YMCA Ticonderoga Teen Center is a free drop-in program for 6th12th graders located on the main floor of the Armory at 123 Champlain Ave.

Read on for our February highlights!

. Mondays: 3pm-9pm Tuesdays: 3pm-9pm Wednesdays: 3pm-9pm Thursdays 3pm-9pm Fridays: 3pm-10pm Saturdays: CLOSED Sundays: CLOSED

To provide local youth with a safe space to connect with their community, to engage in opportunities to grow and have the freedom to be their best selves. Reach us at: youthandteenstaff@silverbay.org

HOMEWORK HELP

Homework Help is available every weekday from 3-4pm and by request any time the Teen Center is open! We strongly encourage teens to complete their assignments first thing after school and staff are happy to help participants bring up their grades in any subject they are struggling with. We believe that supporting academic success sets gives our teens confidence to succeed in all areas of life!

MAKING VALENTINES

Our Leaders Club came up with a service project idea to hand make and deliver Valentines cards to all of the residents at Montcalm Manor, an assisted living facility for seniors here in Ticonderoga. Together the teens made almost 40 unique valentines. It was clear that sharing the love brought joy to both creators and recipients.

ER DROPPING OFF THEIR CARDS AND CANDY

VALENTINES DANCE

We had an amazing turn out for our Valentines Dance this year! 58 local teens turned up to celebrate the holiday of love. They took photos at the Valentines themed photo booth, enjoyed festive snacks, played limbo, and danced the night away to music celebrating love in all its forms. The staff certainly loved the positive energy and hope that everyone had a wonderful time. We look forward to seeing everyone at more events this spring and hope to have just as great a crowd at our Spring Fling in April!

ABOVE: TEENS POSE AT THE VALENTINES PHOTOBOOTH BELOW: TEENS DANCE THE “CUPID SHUFFLE” AND COMPETE IN LIMBO

CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRIES

In preparation for Valentines Day and the Teen Center Dance, teens made an abundance of chocolate covered strawberries! We promise that some strawberries were saved to be shared with others, but there were definitely fewer at the end of the process than we started with.

BAKING

As always, the teens were thrilled to participate in all of our baking activities. They worked together to make some holiday heart sugar cookies as well as some truly adorable red cake pops. Valentines Day is the perfect excuse for indulging in sweets and our teens are happy to take advantage of the opportunity and are eager to pitch in whenever snacks are involved.

CRAFTING

We got some great use out of our craft closet this month as teens tried lots of new arts activities. Some took advantage of an unseasonably warm day to make spray paint art on canvases outside. Teens also embraced the lingering cold and made their own custom fleece throw blankets with the assistance of staff. Wood burning was an exciting new skill for many to add to their usual repertoire of drawing and painting. We can’t wait to s

SLIME TIME

The teens enjoyed making slime a few times this month! It just goes to show that getting messy and sticky is always a fun time, especially when you get a glittery glob of goo to show for it! We love that the teens don’t feel they’ve outgrown this silly craft and know we always have the supplies on hand when they’re feeling in the mood for some slime time. Slime is a simple and relaxing activity that provides teens with a sensory toy that they can personalize with paint or food coloring, glitter, and even beads. As long as it stays sealed tight in a plastic bag, it can last a fair while without making a further mess and still be a fun fidget to squish around.

TEEN CENTER DINNER

This months Teen Center Dinner was homemade ravioli! This meal was a two day process involving making the pasta dough from scratch and then forming and filling the ravioli. We were joined both days by Silver Bay staff Chef Anthony Basile and Brianna D’Haiti. We are so appreciative of their involvement in our program and their skill and patience when teaching the teens. The kids had a blast preparing the ingredients, kneading the dough, and cutting and forming the pasta squares. The result was some impressively professional looking and delicious tasting pasta. Way to go, teens!

Thank you to all who joined us this time and we hope to see you again next month when Chef Tony teaches us how to make Tamale Pie!

SPORTS

Basketball was a big deal this February and we are ramping up for a number of basketball related activities next month in celebration of March Madness. In addition to the usual pick up games and hoop shooting, there will be a larger scale 3 v 3 basketball tournament starting at 6pm on Friday March 15. Start securing players for your teams! There will also be some classic bracketology going on so don’t forget to stop by the Armory and fill out your March Madness predictions. While it unfortunately didn’t lend itself to photos very well, we also had a great game of glow in the dark kickball this month. Thanks to all who played!

GAMES

Teens can often be found using an Oculus headset to play virtual reality games. Their favorites are Gorilla Tag and Job Simulator. Yes, we ’ re suprised that they want to spend their time pretending to have a job, but it seems to be a popular concept and extends to their taste in Xbox games as well. Many eagerly await their turn to play Minecraft and Farming Simulator. Some teens have also been competing in chess lately as well as the Teen Center favorite card game, Codenames. This month we also played Mega Uno with an enormous version of the classic card game. Hilarity ensued!

SILVER

LEADERS CLUB WINTER RALLY

Six members of our Leaders Club were able to attend the YMCA Northeast Regional Leaders Club Winter Rally! This year the rally was hosted at the YMCA of Watson Woods in Painted Post, NY. The theme was Winter Wonderland. Rallies are an opportunity for teens from different areas of the Northeast region to come together and explore their diversities and commonalities, participate in physical and intellectual activities, explore personal values and create memories they won’t soon forget. We were able to fully fund all Ticonderoga Teen Center participants through the Leaders Club snack store fundraiser. They had an amazing time making new friends, participating in workshops, trying out elective activities such as ultimate frisbee, and attending the Winter Wonderland Dance. We are so proud of our local Leaders!

UPCOMING

Dungeons and Dragons Club will be starting in March by teen request! For those who don’t know, Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy role playing game in which players build their own characters and go through an adventure guided by their own choices and creativity. The Dungeon Master serves as referee and storyteller and will be a staff member, but the main characters are the teen players! Curious to try it out? Come to the first session on March 6th at 4pm for a low commitment one shot adventure called “Snowed In”. This means the game will begin and end within the two hour period. If you enjoy it, come back for more the following week. Dungeons and Dragons can be a big time commitment and we ask that participants wishing to join the subsequent campaign beginning on March 13th do their best to make it to each Wednesday session and play for the full 4-6pm window. Your adventuring party is counting on you!