Union of Youth

The Northfield Union of Youth went on their annual winter/spring board retreat this past week. On a sunny day the youth board met at the Key, ate at Chipotle, gamed it up at Grandslam, swam at the Holiday Inn pool, and had a slumber party at that very same Holiday Inn. The group spent about 2 hours discussing a wide variety of topics including fundraising, current and future programming and the future of the organization. The retreat minutes are loosely as follows:

Carleton Garage Sale: stressed how important it will be do help out with this collaborative fundraiser sale. This is a lot of work. Prep begins June 9th.

New Board Recruits wanted!! Youth Board said they would recruit and work on a poster. June 3 are elections.

Smoking on Riverwalk: though we are not the youth police, we are still trying to curb this. Talked about power struggle between staff and youth smokers; how some kids listen but how some youth rebel and have even thrown rocks at staffers. Best preventative measures are:
GETTING THESE YOUTH INVOLVED. How? Hip Hop Night! Starting soon. Basketball hoop on back deck Parker?). Sports checkout (basketballs, soccer balls, football and flags, bikes, cones, bases, etc.). Thursday sports night (Nolan tackle w/ Rachel and Addy)? Could host giant meeting for non involved youth to see what they want from Key. Wednesday the 20th? 4:30pm back deck? Food? Also, Robbie is working on foosball.

Fundraising – Spaghetti Supper and award ceremony. Bagging at Cub – Tim. Beg letter by June. EC. May 29 hip hop show. Youth and adults door to door.

Programs – ART – Rachel and Audrey next year? More guest instructors via colleges. Tie dye, boat race, practical things to teach, glass beads, may day stuff for DJJD.
WW – ask Olivia to renew. Audrey, Maisie, Andi said they would do a review. Recruit.
Movie – plain white sheet needed. Options may help. Key netflix account.
College Prep – U of M, MKat, Gustavus, McNally, etc. More visits.

On Saturday the 2nd, the Northfield Union of Youth participated in 5th Bridge’s 2nd annual “Goods for Good”. The NUY was one of 26 sties throughout the Northfield area hosting rummages sales of which proceeds went to a charity of their choice. Guess who the NUY picked as their charity? Youth were present from 7:30am until around 5:30pm working on the sale and the cleanup. A number of youth also went over to the ice arena to recycle books left over from the annual book sale. Why did the Key do this? Well they are the recipients (along with 4H) of the Waste Management Green Team Award for the months of May-July. For more classy photos please click here.

The Key’s Art Project took a week off from pinatas to head up to the In the Heart of the Beast Theater to work on the theater’s annual May Day parade. The parade is this Sunday, May 3rd from 1:00pm – 4:00pm at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis and a number of youth from the Key will be participating in the parade. For more photos of the field trip click here.

The PRIMEtime Coalition, including the Elementary and Middle School Plus programs, The Northfield Union of Youth, and other elementary, middle school, and high school program partners, went on a field trip to the Faribault Bowling Center Thursday April 2nd. Youth in elementary school and middle school bowled while staff, Promise Fellows, Key Kids, and other high school students “chaperoned” and informally mentored the participating youth. It was a lot of fun and most kids bowled 2 or 3 games (all were bumper bowling!). The youth were also provided food and beverages. If you want to check out some actions shots and funny photos, take a look here.

The PRIMEtime Collaborative, including members of the Northfield Union of Youth (The Key), headed up to the Water Park of America in Bloomington, the world’s largest indoor water park. I was unable to attend so will post photos when I can. A whole busload of youth attended the trip with five members of The Key along as chaperones and participants. It was a very popular trip and all had a wonderful time. The trip was done as part of PRIMEtime’s goal of offering programming and activities to K-12 students on days when school is not in session. Sounds like a fun Spring break trip.

This trip was made possible by an “After School Community Learning Program” grant from the Minnesota Department of Education.

After a few schedule changes Cooking Class finally met again at Emmaus Church. On Thursday March 19th about 10 youth learned how to make crepes from youth chef extraordinaire Danny Dobrow. I wasn’t able to stay and make the food but the kids who went spoke very highly of Danny and the food.

The Northfield Union of Youth’s Youth Board was rather disgusted with all that had been thrown and left on the back deck of The Key and along the riverwalk and decided to do something about. After the past Wednesday’s meeting the entire Youth Board went out with gloves, brooms, dustpans, and shovels and cleared off much of what had been buried underneath feet of snow. I wasn’t able to take many photos as I had a meeting to jet to.

The Key did lampworking (glass beads) this past Tuesday the 17th for Art Project and about 15 youth came on down to participate. Art Project will do glass beads again this coming Tuesday the 24th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Art Project is FREE to everyone who participates and glass bead making is open to beginners and experts. Lampworking expert Amy Merritt will be on hand to lend a helping hand and creative advice.

This past weekend of the 6th and 7th was the Key’s giant Hip Hop Fest. On Friday, Kanser and their backing band (More than Lights) performed an awesome show with some local yokels like Timmy “Two Tone” Hollinger and his band DEAF (Desiring Every Aspect of Freedom) opening. Saturday saw the amazing Kristoffe Krane play. Krane has been making some major press, including some major play (and acknowledgment) on the Current. Local (as in Twin Cities) legend Eyedea also made a guest appearance. Thanks to Madelyn Hartke for the awesome photos.