Not convinced that the ‘80s and mustaches go together?  Just think Hulk Hogan, Magnum P.I. or Mr. Belvedere.  Got it?

I Pity the Fool is sponsored by Café Miranda, Yvette Torres Fine Art, RHEAL Day Spa, Hot Pink Flannel and Machias Savings Bank.  Raffle and contest prizes have been generously donated by many local businesses.  See the complete list at  http://youthlinksonline.org/events.htm#sponsors.

Tickets are available at the door or by calling Youthlinks at 594-2221.
For more information find us on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/groups/ipitythefool/.

Youthlinks is a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services located in Rockland that provides youth with community service, leadership and enrichment opportunities. These programs help youth learn skills, build self-esteem, cultivate social responsibility, develop leadership abilities and connect to their peers, to adult mentors, and to their communities. Youthlinks is funded primarily by state grants and the generous donations of individuals, businesses, and foundations. All Youthlinks programs are free for participating youth. For more information, visit www.youthlinksonline.org, or call 207-594-2221.

Youthlinks invites runners and walkers, big dogs and little dogs, adults and kids to the second annual Run-A-Hound 5k.

 The Run-A-Hound 5k race will start and finish at Youthlinks, located at 420 Broadway in Rockland, on Saturday, April 14th at 9:30am. Participants are asked to park at OHS-East. There will be door prizes, complimentary snacks for all participants, as well as awards for top runner and dog pair and top runner. Registration fees are $10 for Adults with a dog, $15 for Adults without a dog, and $8 for Students with or without a dog. Pre-Registration is greatly appreciated and is available on active.com or by stopping the Youthlinks office.

Youthlinks, a program of Broadreach Family and Community Services, serves over 500 Mid-Coast youth a year through free after-school programs and summer camp. Many of the programs include service-learning and animals. The 5k is modeled on one of Youthlinks’ popular service programs, Run-A-Hound, in which high school students volunteer with local animal shelters by taking dogs out for a run to exercise and train them.  All proceeds from the race will support Youthlinks after-school programs.

Event and prize sponsors are being sought.  Businesses wishing to participate can contact Scott Browning at Youthlinks 207-594-2221 or email sbrowning@brmaine.org.

Youthlinks is a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services located in Rockland that provides youth with community service, leadership and enrichment opportunities. These programs help youth learn skills, build self-esteem, cultivate social responsibility, develop leadership abilities and connect to their peers, to adult mentors, and to their communities.

 Youthlinks is funded primarily by state grants and the generous donations of individuals, businesses, and foundations. All Youthlinks programs are free for participating youth. For more information, visit www.youthlinksonline.org, or call 207-594-2221.

Photo courtesy of Jesse Stuart 2011

Youthlinks third annual I Pity The Fool fundraising dance is gearing up to be the most awesome yet. Café Miranda is once again co-sponsoring the ‘80s themed event that will support the free after-school programs of Youthlinks. Live music will be provided by the Nikki Hunt Band, back by popular demand from last year’s event. This year’s dance is on Saturday March 31 at an exciting new location, the beautiful downtown gallery Yvette Torres Fine Art.

Event and prize sponsors are being sought. Last year over a dozen great prizes were awarded in categories such as best outfit and best hair. Businesses wishing to participate can contact Joelle Albury at Youthlinks 207-594-2221 or email jalbury@brmaine.org.

Tickets for the event will go on sale in March. For more information find us on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/groups/ipitythefool/.

Youthlinks is a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services located in Rockland that provides youth with community service, leadership and enrichment opportunities. These programs help youth learn skills, build self-esteem, cultivate social responsibility, develop leadership abilities and connect to their peers, to adult mentors, and to their communities. Youthlinks is funded primarily by state grants and the generous donations of individuals, businesses, and foundations. All Youthlinks programs are free for participating youth. For more information, visit www.youthlinksonline.org, or call 207-594-2221.

Active Parenting Now is a video-based education program targeted to parents of 5 to 12-year-olds who want to improve their parenting skills. Class material promotes mutual respect among family members within a democratically run family. The program teaches parents how to raise a child by using encouragement, building the child’s self-esteem, and creating a relationship with the child based upon active listening, honest communication, and problem solving. It also teaches parents to use natural and logical consequences to reduce irresponsible and unacceptable behaviors.

These parent classes will be open to all parents and child care will be provided during class. Because of grant funds awarded by the Maine Children’s Trust, there will be no cost for parents who want to participate.

Broadreach provides a variety of services to young parents and their children in Waldo and Knox Counties. Broadreach services have been making a critical difference in the lives of area children and families since 1983. Each year over 2,000 families with children benefit from the agency’s quality education and support programs. Broadreach has over a quarter of century expertise in delivering parenting education, family support, early childhood education and family literacy programming. Other provided parent education options include Kids First, Guiding Good Choices, and the Nurturing Fathers Program.

If you would like to learn how to register for Active Parenting Now, or learn more about our parent education offerings, please call Patrick Walsh at 207-338-2200 ext 109 or contact by e-mail pwalsh@brmaine.org.

Chef Nancy Wood from Amalfi on the Water teaches RASA students how to make baked sweet potato fries during the Cooking Matters program.

Local middle school students make “blubber burgers” in an after-school program. This “burger” represents the total grams of fat in a chain restaurant meal of mozzarella sticks, ribs, and a shake.

Rockland After-School Alliance (RASA) participants are cooking up delicious dishes each week all while having fun learning about healthy food choices in the Cooking Matters program.

Another session of Cooking Matters will be offered in RASA’s spring session which begins March 6th. Middle School Students can sign up for this and other RASA programs by visiting www.youthlinksonline.org/RASA.

Program participants recently put their math skills to work with University of Maine Cooperative Extension Eat Well Nutrition Associate Beth Chamberlain. The project was to select their favorite fast food restaurant meals and add up the total grams of fat. Students converted grams into teaspoons and measured it out in shortening to make a sandwich. Of course the sandwiches weren’t eaten, but they provided plenty to make the pre-teens think twice about their choices when ordering from the drive through. Each week students learn how to make healthy meals at home. In this class, the menu included Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Baked Flaked Chicken.

Each week, the participants work with Chef/Restaurant Owner Nancy Wood, from Amalfi on the Water, to create delicious healthy meals. The participants then go home with all the ingredients to cook for their families. Cooking Matters is a program of Share Our Strength and teaches skills such as knife and food safety along with nutrition education such as understanding the USDA’s “MyPlate” and how to read nutrition labels. The program is sponsored on a national level by ConAgra Foods and Walmart. The Good Shepherd Food Bank and Hannaford sponsor the program in Maine and have helped bring the program to RASA. Beth Chamberlain and Nancy Wood volunteer their time each week to plan and teach the program alongside Youthlinks Program Manager, Scott Browning.

RASA is a program of Youthlinks offered in collaboration with RSU 13 supported by a 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant from the Maine Department of Education. Youthlinks is a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services, a non-profit organization that has been serving the children and families of Waldo and Knox Counties since 1983. For more information concerning the Rockland After-School Alliance, please Youthlinks: 594-2221 or visit www.youthlinksonline.org/RASA.

RASA program participants Sam Ward, Sumir Mahonen, and Prem Ruklittikul try their hand at designing free-standing towers as part of the “Build It” after-school program. “Build It” gives students a chance to be engineers as they create buildings, bridges, boats and more. Visit www.youthlinksonline.org/RASA to learn more about the upcoming spring session of RASA programming, including February Break Week Camp, which will include a whole new set of building projects!

Students in Conquer the Castle, a Rockland After-School Alliance (RASA) club, don’t quite act like a typical middle school student. Enter the lair of the program, and you may be introduced to valiant ‘knights’ like the Swan Warrior, Esmerelda of Star Kingdom, Vallicis the Dark, or Steve the Viking. You will find the allied forces of Conquer the Castle working tirelessly to construct bridges, towers, or catapults to topple to reign of the tyrannical Queen Brunhilde, also known as Youthlinks Program Manager Caitlin Schick. Decorated in a hand designed coat of arms, each knight in the program is challenged to design and build mini-feats of science every program session in hopes of advancing closer to the castle of Brunhilde to set the inhabitants of her Kingdom Valkyrie free from her crushing rule.

Conquer the Castle strives to stimulate the imaginations of its students with Medieval fantasy, scientific inquiry and engineering strategy with every challenge. The program operates on a captivating legend of an evil queen, and in order to be victorious, students must work together in tightly timed challenges to propel their knights and allies forward on a game board. Some challenges required students to build a bridge made only of spaghetti and tape capable of holding a set weight, or creating a marshmallow catapult capable of hitting a target fifteen feet away. With every successful accomplishment, the knights travel further through the mythical Kingdom of Valkyrie, closer to meeting up with the Queen for their final challenge. Every student must think quickly, work cooperatively, and strategize effectively in order to advance.

Conquer the castle is one of over 20 RASA clubs offered at Rockland District Middle School this fall. The winter session begins in January and registration is now underway.

RASA is a program of Youthlinks offered in collaboration with RSU 13 supported by a 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant from the Maine Department of Education. Youthlinks is a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services, a non-profit organization that has been serving the children and families of Waldo and Knox Counties since 1983. For more information concerning the Rockland After-School Alliance, please call Amie Hutchison, RASA Project Coordinator, at Youthlinks: 594-2221. For more information on Broadreach programs and services visit www.broadreachmaine.org

Waterfall Arts and Youthlinks are combining forces this winter to provide a free after-school arts program where students will learn to transform what many might consider trash into functional and aesthetically pleasing works of art. In the “Eco-Craft” program, students will give new life to junk mail, old board games, t-shirts, bubble wrap and aluminum cans by creating duct tape wallets, journals, jewelry, sculptures, and more. Participants will work both individually and collaboratively on projects, with the program culminating in the design of a group piece done in cardboard for submission to Waterfall’s upcoming “Corrugation Nation” show.

The Eco-Craft group will meet Thursdays 2:45-5pm, from January 12th to February 16th at Waterfall Arts in Belfast. This program is free and open to all students in Waldo County ages 12-15. For more information or to register a student, contact Ashley at 975-3878.

Youthlinks is a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services located in Rockland that provides community service, leadership and enrichment opportunities to all youth ages 11-17 from anywhere in mid-coast Maine. These programs help youth learn skills, build self-esteem, cultivate social responsibility, develop leadership abilities and connect to their peers, to adult mentors, and to their communities. Youthlinks is funded primarily by state grants and the generous donations of individuals, businesses, and foundations.

All Youthlinks programs are free for participating youth. For more information, visit www.youthlinksonline.org, or call 207-594-2221.
Founded in 2000, Waterfall Arts is a donor supported, nonprofit, contemporary art center with locations in Belfast and Montville Maine. The organization’s mission is to create community in harmony with nature through the transformative power of the arts. Waterfall Arts offers classes, lectures, residencies and other educational events for all ages as well as onsite studio and gallery space. Waterfall Arts Belfast is located at 256 High Street. Visit waterfallarts.org or call 207 338-2222 for more information.

Photo by Hilary Flagg

Rockland District Middle School’s fledgling Glee Club has continued to flourish this year.  Youthlinks, through the Rockland After-School Alliance, offered its third session of Glee this fall, and the response from students has been overwhelmingly positive.  A group of fifteen dedicated middle students brought their love of music to weekly rehearsals, and last Friday afternoon they had the chance to show off the product of all their hard work; during the RASA end-of-session showcase, the Glee club took the stage to perform 3 song and dance routines for an audience of friends and family.
Included in the performance were the following songs and featured soloists:  Firework, featuring Makaila Hickey, Lizzy Clark, and Effie Monroe; Thriller / Heads Will Roll, featuring Delia Saastamoinen, Mckaylee Morris, Alex O’Brien, Tegan Simmons, Caleb Bellen, and Anna Poisson; and Loser Like Me, featuring Zoe Goff, Gracie Vicente, Nick Blastow, and Anna Poisson.
Returning participant Delia Saastamoinen says that Glee Club continues to be fun because there are always new opportunities to try songs and audition for solos:  “Glee Club is so fun and a lot of my friends are in it,” she says, “Anyone can audition for a solo in any song, so everyone has a chance to get a special part.”  Others, including Tegan Simmons, have said they stick with the program because “The song choices are awesome!  I love to sing and dance, and we always have fun.”  Mckaylee Morris admitted that she has some stage fright, but says that Glee has helped her to stop “being afraid to sing in front of people.”  Others echo that sentiment, saying that they like challenging themselves to sing on-stage, learn new lyrics, and test their voices.
The Glee Club’s recent performance caps off the fall session, but November 7th marks the start of another Gleeful 6 weeks!  Rockland District Middle School students are encouraged to sign up for the program as soon as possible–spaces in the club fill up fast!  Youthlinks, a program of Broadreach Family & Community Services, is part of the Rockland After-School Alliance (RASA) and provides community service, leadership and enrichment opportunities to all youth ages 11-17 from anywhere in mid-coast Maine. RASA programs help youth learn skills, build self-esteem, cultivate social responsibility, develop leadership abilities and connect to their peers, to adult mentors, and to their communities. Youthlinks is funded primarily by state grants and the generous donations of individuals, businesses, and foundations. All programs are free for participating youth. For more information, visit www.youthlinksonline.org, or call 207-594-2221.