A new youth program is coming to town on March 14 to help facilitate a night of fun and fort wars for kids in Grades 5 to 9.
The night will help gauge interest in starting up a Young Life chapter in Golden and will help give young people a positive outlet where they can be themselves for a few hours, with like-minded kids in their age group.
“We’re in the works of hiring a youth worker through Young Life,” explained Sherri Stelmach, one of the parents who is leading the charge to bring Young Life to Golden.
“It’s all about loving kids where and how they are.”
Young Life is a religious organization that’s based in Colorado Springs, with chapters across Canada and the US. While it may be a Christian organization, it’s non-denominational and is more focused on bringing people together than it is focused on religion.
Stelmach explained that kids won’t be meeting in churches and that programming is more focused on encouraging kids to be themselves so they can grow into well-developed adults.
“I think it’ll have a good and positive impact if we bring it to this community,” said Stelmach. “I think the kids who are staying at home and playing on their devices will want to come out and feel accepted and have that word of encouragement spoken into their life so they can be a better person.”
The event on March 14 will serve as a jumping off point to bring the program to Golden on a full-time basis, which Stelmach expects to happen sometime in the fall.
Kids will have a chance to build box forts and are encouraged to bring their own Nerf guns to participate in the fun. The Young Life leader who is facilitating the event will also be bringing between 20-30 youth with her, to give Golden kids a chance to hear first hand about the benefits of participating in Young Life.
Stelmach says that the advantages of having Young Life in the community are tangible, citing Pemberton as a key example of what the program can do for the community.
“Over there, this one company almost had to put up a fence to keep kids out so they would stop coming into its yard causing trouble,” she said. “Instead, they invested the money into Young Life and it really helped those kids channel their energy positively.”
Stelmach also said they have some funding from the Dave Treadway memorial fund to get this off the ground. Dave Treadway made Golden his home years ago and was an avid supporter of Young Life before he died in a tragic ski accident.
