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Youth Services

RavenMae

Holiday greetings everyone! I hope that you all had a fantastic holiday. Here's to a prosperous New Year!

 

If you were ever curious about what goes on with the youth of our community, here's a little update.

 

We have 3 age groups that we try to keep entertained and educated during festivals. The Fairy Mound for 2 years through 7 years. The Tweens, ages 7 - 12 and the Teens, ages 13 - 18. We have been blessed to have our wonderful Rachel as our Fairy Mound coordinator for the last several years. She does a great job with the "Littles". Even if you don't have young children who attend festival, if you happen to be walking by the Fairy Mound, you should stop in a give her a big thank you along with all of her volunteers.

This year I would like to focus on getting new BIG toys for the Fairy Mound. All of the yard toys have seen better days and I'm sure the kids would love to have some new ones to occupy their time. So if you happen to be passing a garage sale or cleaning out your own yard and come across anything that would be suitable, we would be forever in your debt if you could help us out. If you need assistance in getting them to the land, post it to the list. I am sure that there is someone in your area that would be willing to help out.

 

Other things in Youth Services that really need attention are the Tweens and Teens. If you have family in these age groups you will know what I mean. We did not have a Tween or Teen camp at Samhain because we did not have a coordinator for each group. If you would be able to help out with that, please contact me as soon as you can. Even if its only part of the festival, it's better than none at all. Maybe, if we have enough people, we can split it up between a few different folks. Remember, this is our future and they need a good festival experience like the adults do.

 

If you don't feel that you can commit a large amount of time to the Tweens and Teens, what about an hour of your festival? Do you have a talent or some particular knowledge that you would like to share? Do you host a workshop already that you could adjust slightly for the younger members of our community? Do you have some cool games you could share with the young ones? Any of these and more would be greatly appreciate by the youth.

 

 There are going to be some changes at Beltaine 2007. Hopefully these changes will help to get more people involved with the kids.

So far those changes include:

 

· Family meetings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday - This will be a requirement for the tween and teen families and a request for the Fairy Mound families. In these meetings we will discuss the rules, get waivers signed and share the schedule for the different areas. This is an opportunity for parents to meet other parents, meet the coordinators and for everyone to know and understand the rules. There will also be time for questions.

 

· Tween camp will go co-op – as with the Fairy Mound, the tween camp will also go co-op. If your tweens are going to participate in the tween camp activities, parents must sign up for 2 hours to help out. These 2 hours will be in addition to your community service time.

 

Look for more changes to come in the following months.

 

We are also going to implement the Rent a Teen program at Beltaine 2007. The logistics of it will be worked out and things will be posted to the lists and part of the festival guide for Beltaine. We are also adding a Junior Fire Crew and continuing with the Junior Guardians and Junior Medics.

 

Just a reminder of what Youth Services could use:

Fairy Mound is in need of: