All-ages show tonight carves out space for youth to have fun
Tantramar youth need a place to hang out, says Michael Freeman, and tonight at the Sackville Commons, they will have just that, at an all-ages open mic and show, featuring local garage rock band, Reclaim the Vents.
Freeman is six weeks into his new position as youth strategic coordinator for the United Way’s YOU Turns program, based out of Tantramar Regional High School. CHMA spoke to him about his new role and the upcoming show:
Freeman’s job runs the gamut from helping youth connect with resources to help meet their basic needs like housing, food and health, but also to help provide some opportunities for enjoyment. “Fun is restorative,” says Freeman. “It’s a human right, it’s developmentally necessary.”
Freeman says he has heard youth expressing the need for spaces to hang out. “From my point of view, I think it’s crazy that a community of our size doesn’t have a youth centre,” says Freeman. “And so the hope is, we’re working with the Sackville Commons, and we would really like to, over the next year or so, develop a youth drop in space where people can come in, hang out, engage in programming, get some food, and do those kinds of things.
“But to get the ball rolling, we’re thinking, let’s have some events, let’s have some open mics and coffee houses, some concerts,” says Freeman.… Continue
Rub-A-Dub-Dub Radio Hour
Saturday 9pm. Peter Kelly Spurles. Join Peter and friends on their meandering path through an hour of songs and stories, only on the Rub-A-Dub-Dub Radio Hour.
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Tantramar Dragon Boat teams smash their record and raise over $45k for Lions Sick Children’s Fund
When two enthusiastic students first convinced math teacher Julie Jones to help organize a Tantramar Regional High School (TRHS) team for the Greater Moncton Dragon Boat Festival back in 2006, Jones thought the goal of raising $1800 would be tough to accomplish. Now, 17 years later, a small army of 196 students and 14 staff at the school have raised over $45,000 and counting. “Right now I have a total of $45,539,” said Jones on Tuesday. “And there’s still money coming in.”
Jones says the team surpassed last year’s record amount of $39,000. “I’m pretty pretty darn proud of these kids,” said Jones. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Katerina Hicks is the leader of this year’s Dragon Boat council. The graduating student says it is “absolutely wonderful” that a small community like Tantramar was able to raise such a large amount of money to go towards the Lions Sick Children’s Fund and other charities chosen by students. “I’m so proud to be a part of that,” says Hicks.
To raise the money, the students ran a number of activities and events, including a carnival, popcorn and vegetable and flower seed sales, and two shows featuring Nova Scotian hypnotist Ian Stewart. “One of the good things about Dragon Boat is that not only can we fundraise money for charities,” says student council member Mack Faulkner, “but also do it in ways that engages our community.”… Continue
TRHS pantry keeps shelves stocked for high school students in need
About four or five years ago, a teacher at Tantramar Regional High School noticed one of his students didn’t have a winter jacket. It was January, and luckily the teacher, Matthew Tozer, had access to some jackets that had been left behind by kids in previous years. But when Tozer got home and told his partner and fellow teacher Melanie Ball about the situation, the two agreed something had to be done.
“He came home and said, this is terrible. How can you focus on school, and figuring out what you want to do for your future, if you’re worried about freezing to death on the way here?” recalls Ball. “And I agreed he was absolutely right.”
And so the TRHS Pantry project was born. Tozer and Ball put together a closet at the school with, “some of the basic things that we thought the students might need that they didn’t have,” says Ball.
But other needs soon became apparent. “Then we realized that some of the kids didn’t have lunches,” says Ball. “So we started a lunch program as well with the help of the Sackville Food Bank and Heather Patterson.”
“It just kept getting bigger,” says Ball. “Our principal gave us a bigger room. Once you start doing this sort of thing you really see the need. And so it’s just been growing and growing every year,” says Ball.
Hear Melanie Ball in conversation on Tantramar Report:
The pantry stocks clothing, food, and personal care items like toothbrushes, toothpaste and shampoo.… Continue