Hello Open Doors participants and supporters!! We just wrapped up our winter session here at St. Albans Town Educational Center (SATEC) and are welcoming everyone back to our last session of the 2006-07 school year. Youth in our programs have grown leaps and bounds while accomplishing so much once again this year.
This winter, students were very creative and socially responsible in SATEC Open Doors Programs. In the Stained Glass Design class they made stunning, artistically crafted maple leaves and donated them to a silent auction at SATEC to raise money for scholarships for BFA students going to college who are alumni of St. Albans Town Educational Center. Over $1700 was raised from donations made by Open Doors, staff, businesses and SATEC students. Students in the SATEC Open Doors program also artistically painted chairs this session- a brilliant idea that originated at St. Albans City School. Students in this popular class chose a favorite artist and book then designed images for two chairs each, based on what they learned from these choices. Each student will keep a chair and display the other at business locations around the city as part of a silent auction aimed at offsetting Open Doors operating costs. Debbie Landauer of Well stream Herbs taught an herbal class last session, where children were able to make lip balm, shampoo, tea, herbal dip and more. At the end of this class our student participants went with Ms. Landaur to the Holiday House to share their knowledge by making sachets with the seniors who live there. Creativity with Clay participants had a great time experimenting with several types of clay this session- modeling clay, sculpy, crayola model magic, ceramics air dry clay and kiln fire clay. At the conclusion everyone brought home their fired pieces to share with their families. Students participating in Cooking at BFA learned how to cook, whipped up weekly treats and made healthy food choices. They gave back to our community too: Martha’s Kitchen, our local soup kitchen received and a delicious batch of homemade Macaroni and Cheese from these socially responsible kid-chefs. The Maple Festival Float Design is coming to a close soon so be on the lookout Sunday the 29 th of this month for our maple costumes, leaves, tree, sap buckets and more surprises in the parade on Main Street!
Many students in SATEC programs also found themselves engaged in exercise as well as a bit of healthy competition this session. Intramural Sports and 2Inspire dance saw incredible youth participation. Both programs provide our students with an awesome wind-down and fun exercise at the end of their school day. Attendance was high. In fact these two programs saw the most consistent attendees of all our programs. Youth in the Trivial Pursuit/ Apples to Apples Tournament program played their hearts out in a different way. Hannah Thibert won the nine-week friendly board game competition with the most wins and walked away with her own Sudoku book and matching “mood” pen. The St. Albans Bowling Center provided another great opportunity to our kids as well. Everyone in this class rolled out the fun there then concluded the session with personalized medals presented by instructor Susie Chagnon. Kevin Laddison from First Step Dance contracted with Open Doors this winter to teach students ballroom dance. Students in his program experienced a valuable opportunity to do something that they have not seen in this town very often- take high quality ballroom dance lessons.
Click here to check out spring classes! We promise to update you with more landmark accomplishments at the end of this session too because we know that more student growth is bound to take place!
