Random Photos from Winter Session

Here is a random assortment of pictures from our Winter session. We had a lot of fun!

Goodbye Winter!

Hello Blog Friends!

Yesterday was the last day of Winter session at Sheridan Beacons. We like to do it big on the last day of each session.

We recognize our young people for their accomplishments in the previous session. Some youth from each unit were recognized for their special contributions or achievements.

Here are our k-2 special award winners

And our 3-5 special award winners

Here are our 6-8 special award winners

But the awards did not stop there. Each young person who participates in Beacons got an award. Everyone was recognized for one of the YMCA's four core values, Caring, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility. The staff work together to decide which value each young person displays the most.

Here are some of our K-2 youth with their certificates
Then everyone at Beacons got an ice cream sandwich! The k-2 youth were really excited!
Even though some people needed to wash their hands after the ice cream! And everyone else enjoyed their ice cream, even though some people were feeling a little loopy!Then, before we knew it, it was time to go home. Here are some pictures of people leaving. (sob!) We'll see you all after Spring Break!

Beacons is WHAT?!?!

L.I.T.s Visit the Food Shelf

Hello Blog world!

Today our LIT group visited a food shelf at Northeast Lutheran Church. The LITs have been to the food shelf for the last few weeks. The church is not far from Sheridan, and since the weather is a lot warmer (even if it is rainy) our group decided to walk over to Northeast. Some of the youth didn't want to get drizzled on, so they decided to improvise some rain gear:
Our youth helped pack up some items into bags for the food shelf

Then they set them out

Check out the produce available at the food shelf!Our youth also got a chance to meet with the manager of the East Side Food Co-Op. She brought a bunch of food from the co-op to cook with our youth. She brought some different types of roasted vegetables for our youth to sample. There were a few different types of beets, and some other veggies:
Today they got to cook breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, they made delicious scrambled eggs. They started by sauteeing some onions, green peppers and mushrooms

Cracked some eggs

and grated cheeselots of cheese And, yes, sometimes you have to taste it. Just to make sure it's all good!
And for lunch? Quesadillas! Two kinds. One with beans and cheese and one with red lentils and cheese. With full bellies, people got a little goofy...

What an awesome trip to the food shelf! Thank you to our friends at the East Side Food Co-Op!

DJ Turtleneck Visits Sheridan Beacons!

Last week, we had a very exciting visitor! DJ Turtleneck came into Sheridan as a guest speaker for our 6-8 Hip Hop History group. Beacons youth of all ages turned up to learn a little and watch while he taught us all about being a DJ.

Carnage just happened to be at Sheridan for the presentation, so he and Turtleneck freestyled together. Carnage is beatboxing behind the DJ. See if you can hear the two different sounds.

He showed us Juggling, where the DJ plays two records of the same song:

Then we had a good old fashioned Beacons dance party!

Have a great weekend, blog friends!

Blizzard Cup 2009

Whew! I hope everyone had an awesome Winter Break! Sheridan Beacons is back in full effect! Look for more exciting blog posts in the future!

I wanted to update everyone on just one amazing thing that happened at Sheridan during Beacons Winter Break...The Blizzard Cup!!
Thanks to a grant from International Dairy Queen, our YMCA Beacons were able to participate in a Knowledge Bowl, aptly titled the Blizzard Cup!

Middle schoolers at Nellie Stone Johnson, Sheridan and Anne Sullivan/Anishanabe have been meeting weekly at their centers to practice. Each center's team had to brush up on their skills. The questions ranged across all subjects, like english, math, science and humanities. All the teams worked really hard!

After all the hard work, the three teams came together on December 17th at Sheridan.

Each team came up with their own names and showed up ready to rock!

The Anne Sullivan/Anishanabe "Beacons Nerds"

The Nellie Stone Johnson "Fighting Jaguars"

And the Sheridan "Mind Bombs"

And Dairy Queen didn't disappoint, either. They showed up with the Blizzards! YUM!!!

The surprises kept on coming! Fox 9's Chief Meteorologist Ian Leonard showed up to kick off the event. He talked to the youth a and even broadcasted live from the Sheridan auditorium!
Then the questions began...Each team sat at their own table with a buzzer in the middle. The team that buzzed in first got 15 seconds to answer the question correctly for a point. If that team could not answer in 15 seconds, then the next team got a chance to answer, and so on. Here is a shot of the teams seated at their tables, ready for questions!The teams were playing for a few awesome prizes. Each youth participant got a medal, and each team won an awesome spinning trophy. The pictures don't do them justice! Then there were awards for the team who answered the most questions correctly in specific subjects (english, math, science and humanitites). And the winning team won $1,000 for their Beacon center!

After a few rounds of questions and a lot of excitement, the winning team was....

The Sheridan Mind Bombs! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

Congrats to all of the teams! We can't wait until next time!!