We have been busy! Just looking back, we kicked off the New Year with a “New Friends Pancake Dinner,” to encourage meeting new young people despite the global pandemic. We were able to get lots of x-country skiing and snow shoeing in along with many winter hiking trips (some even into the moonlight). We encouraged outdoor activities, but also took advantage of many things opening back up locally (we went bowling and ate at many unique restaurants as part of our “Eating Our Way Around the World” program; introducing young people to new experiences and different types of food and culture).
February we reconnected with the Rescue Mission and were able to start our volunteer efforts with them again (happy to be back doing SEVA!). Many past Town Shop participants have reached out this year to provide programming for the Town Shop. They have already contributed Ninjitsu/self-defense classes at the building, taught Tarot card reading, done writer’s workshops, and meditation with teens. We have had open mic night at least once a month (very popular as young people need a platform to express themselves now more than ever). We also had our first sleepover since the shutdown!! Wow, did we miss those
There was the continuation of Dungeons and Dragons every month, video game tournaments, game nights, different types of movie nights (cult classic movie night, spooky movie night etc), and anime night as well. We also have our monthly cooking class (often vegetarian) and our monthly baking class (often led by guest chefs or young people with specialty dishes). We also had our first ever “foam sword” workshop which was very popular.
We had pizza parties and celebrated birthdays, but most importantly, we celebrated the Town Shop’s 50th anniversary in March!! I cannot even begin to explain how pleased we were with the outcome despite “Covid life”. We celebrate all week long (March 8th through the 12th) with four separate events to keep numbers low instead of one BIG anniversary celebration per our usual due to the pandemic. We were very fortunate to have LOTS of help (Camillus Methodist Church was amazing with donating food and many past Town Shop people contributed with baked goods and facilitating our 50thanniversary t-shirts and stickers… teens LOVED these things). We put youth designs on flyers, t-shirts, stickers and even a billboard in Camillus to celebrate the Town Shop 50th. We were on news channel 9 leading up to our week-long celebration and throughout the week (Christie Casciano interviewed lots of teens and did a great piece). The Eagle Observer wrote an article on the 50th anniversary as well. We had 75 in and out of the building for an art expo (all young people art) and teens did “hand-painting”for young children (event coordinated with WGHS art department… showcased jewelry, bracelet making, painting, photography etc). There was an alumni night (35 alumni; great art piece given to us by past participant Chris Suave of a young David Vermilya). We also held a recognition dinner for 35 young people where we handed out awards and certificates honoring their service in the community and dedication to the program etc and recognized some of our amazing supports within the Town of Camillus (Town Supervisor, Mary Anne Coogan and Parks Director, Eric Bacon etc… the town also recognized the program with a certificate as well). Finally, we had our 50th anniversary open mic night (50 in and out of the building all evening) with lots of cake, pizza, wings and baked goods (pizza donated by Solvay bank). We also still maintain our amazing OCC connection with interns that helped us with additional cleaning and sanitizing… they worked hard all anniversary week.
Also, the Camillus Police Department and Chief Winn recognized the Town Shop program with an award and recognition and then covered the cost of our pizza and wings for our second sleepover this year (which happened March 26th, 29 in and out of the building until the following morning)! We are happy to be able to celebrate so well with capacity limitations etc We have hopes of doing something outdoors to celebrate 50 years this summer as well.
Past Town Shop participants got together and re-launched our website this March as well (www.camillustownshop.org). It has been a beautiful year for us already to say the least! Our current population (about 45-50 young people) feel truly lucky to have the program, and we feel honored to know them.
Going forward, we already have plans with the Village of Camillus to do a mass village Earth Day clean-up in April (they will be helping buy us lunch to thank us for our efforts). We feel more connected now than we have in a while, and, of course, can’t wait for kayak season to commence here’s to 50 more years!!