Samoset Wildcats Day of Caring Changemaking in Action

I visit Samoset school on Fridays and spend the day working with the Youth Venture students. This past Friday, before the holiday break, was a special day. On this Samoset Wildcats “Day of Caring” students made holiday cards and snowflakes during their workshop. Two students brought in HUGE cards for all to sign. Other students […]

Northwest Youth Venture Students Learn About CASA

Every Thursday, I visit the 15 students that participate in Youth Venture at Northwest Elementary. We meet in the cafeteria during their last hour of school. I look forward to meeting with these kids. Their honesty, intelligence and teamwork, surprises me every week.   I think back to when I was in 4th grade, I was […]

Gardner High School’s Youth Venture Community Garden Grows

Gardner High School’s Youth Venture team Gardner Grows, also known as the GHS Community Garden has come a long way since their launch in 2017! Their vision of a beautiful courtyard garden with a bounty of vegetables to donate to local families-in-need came to fruition over the summer. Mr. Tata’s Botony class donated $3,000 to […]

Youth Venture Visits Growing Places: Part 2

After our refreshing walk in the garden, Janet moved our meeting inside where Ann Yeagle, the executive director of Growing Places shared more information with us. She discussed other indicators of food insecurity: race, poverty, unemployment, transportation and supermarket prices. We learned that the North Central,MA towns of Gardner, Lunenburg, Leominster, Fitchburg and Clinton are […]

Mark the Therapy Dog Inspires Young Changemakers at Samoset Middle School

Mark the therapy dog is owned by full-time puppy raiser and volunteer Kathy Haskell. Mark and Kathy volunteer at Samoset and Fall Brook schools in Leominster by visiting and reading with the Life Skill classes. According to the non-profit organization pawsforpeople.org, therapy dogs provide literacy support, helping children focus better and encouraging specifically the love […]