Union of Youth

The Northfield Skateboard Coalition is getting famous once again and was selected by Waste Management as the recipient for the May-July Green Team Award. The Skateboard Coalition will be responsible for periodically monitoring the recycling bin at Econofoods and encourage everyone to drop off their old newspapers, magazines, phone books, hard and soft cover books, paper of all kinds, cereal boxes, corrugated cardboard, cardboard cartons, and a slew of other paper and paper-related products into the recycling bins at Econofoods and Cub Foods. For their efforts the Coalition will receive $15/ton of recycled paper. Get recycling!

Members of the Northfield Skateboard Coalition received a check for $10,000 from the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) on Wednesday April 23rd. Skateboard Coalition members and HCI Board members celebrated the donation following the Coalition’s weekly meeting at The Key.

In October, HCI had agreed to match, dollar-for-dollar, any money the Coalition raised from October 15, 2007, to April 1, 2008, up to $10,000. The Coalition met its $10,000 goal and, thus, received the full $10,000 donation from HCI.

With the HCI donation, the youth in the Skateboard Coalition have now raised nearly $30,000 to contribute to the construction of a skateboard plaza in Northfield.

The 2nd annual Healthy Kids Day, organized by the YMCA, occurred Saturday April 12th. This was a family event that promoted healthy lifestyles for children of all ages and included various activities by a large number of organizations. The weather was a bit like February outside, but a large number of youth and parents showed up for the event. The Key had button-making as its activity and gave away stickers and t-shirts at the event. Members of the Key also dressed up a crash-test dummies to help out with their seatbelt challenge. As seen on the photos, the Aztec dancers, a PRIMEtime collaborator, were also present and performed for a solid 45 minutes. To see the photos click here.

Art Project brought in guest instructor Amy Merritt to teach glass beads Tuesday the 8th. Amy taught safety and basic glass beadwork for the 12 or so youth that attended. For a gander at all the photos of the event click here.
Funding for the Minnesota After-School Community Learning program is provided by the Minnesota Department of Education.

Fight Club is the first published novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk. The novels concerns the unlikely friendship of the books’ narrator, who hates his job and life, and Tyler Durdin, a deviant and charming anarchist. The book takes on themes such as masculinity, violence, consumerism, and a whole host of other complex subjects. Copies are available at The Key and we can order more if they run out. Please read to page 73 for Monday April 7th. Free to anyone ages 12-20.

The Northfield Skateboard Coalition met its $10,000 challenge grant from Northfield Healthy Community Initiative just under the deadline of April 1st. Congrats!! That leaves just under $30,000 raised overall.