by ALEXANDRA RETTER In a soccer program for children of all abilities, students at a practice this month took turns dribbling through cones before trying to shoot a goal. The Winona Family YMCA offers this inclusive soccer program, as well as a variety of other inclusive sports programs. This programming gives students a chance […]
In a soccer program for children of all abilities, students at a practice this month took turns dribbling through cones before trying to shoot a goal. The Winona Family YMCA offers this inclusive soccer program, as well as a variety of other inclusive sports programs. This programming gives students a chance to practice social skills and make friends, as well as practice their sports skills.
The Winona Family YMCA also offers programs such as adaptive volleyball and basketball and adaptive swim lessons.
Sports Lead Collin Perschnick has been involved with all the inclusive sports programs. “I think it’s something that can be missed a lot in our day in society,” he said. “Making programs that are for everyone and anyone, just bringing people of all skills and abilities together is what I really like about it.” He aims to become an adaptive PE teacher, and he has fun watching students grow. “It’s inclusive sports, but it builds more than just the sports skills; it’s also connection and working on social skills and [it] gets them in a new environment.” He’s glad to see students get more and more comfortable and keep building relationships with others. “I think there’s been a lot of students who have maybe had friendships or known each other from school but are still kind of nervous, and then a lot of time you can find kids who develop buddies or partners who they really like to hang out with a lot,” he said. “And it’s always fun to see those relationships build.” Similarly, he wants students to feel comfortable in themselves. “What I really hope they take away from this is … it’s OK to be them and themselves, and there are people who care about you, adults and peers,” he said.
In soccer, students work on dribbling, passing and shooting, Perschnick said, and they play games as well. “What you will also see with all our inclusive programs is we have our sport, but we will also take breaks to play different games they like … They love freeze tag, they love four cones, which is four corners. We include those games for them to break up their soccer skills and get to interact with their peers in different ways besides just soccer,” he said. They also play color tag, in which students stand on one side and taggers stand in the middle, then call out a color, and if a student is wearing that color, they have to run across without getting tagged.“It also helps them work on the skill of what happens when something maybe doesn’t go our way … and you can see that each and every single time, it gets better,” he said.
Marge Literski’s grandson is in the soccer program, and she said it has been great to watch him interact with his peers. “… The socialization is really good for him,” she said, adding that he has not stood back as much as usual. She wants to sign up him for future programs. Jade Beck’s two children are also in the soccer program, as they are trying out different sports to see what they enjoy. “It’s good for them to learn skills through the program, like waiting one’s turn, waiting in line and listening to instructions,” she said. “I hope they make some new friends and learn some listening skills … We’re members of the Y, so physical activity is a big, big thing that I like to implement into their lives or integrate into their lives, so hopefully they will learn that at this impressionable age and it will last throughout their lifetime,” she said. It’s great to include everyone in the program, she added. “I think everybody has different levels of skill, whether it be athletic skills or listening skills or sportsmanship, so it’s nice to see and appreciate other people’s strengths and weaknesses and just learn that it’s OK for everyone to have varied levels of both those things,” she said.
BREC kicks off event geared toward curbing crime in youth, cuts ribbon on park redevelopment
BATON ROUGE – On Friday, BREC kicked off Late Night Hype, a community event geared toward curbing crime in youth, and also cut the ribbon on Howell Community Park’s redevelopment. “These parents and kids need to have a place where they can go and enjoy the coolness of the pool during the summertime, the playground, […]
BATON ROUGE – On Friday, BREC kicked off Late Night Hype, a community event geared toward curbing crime in youth, and also cut the ribbon on Howell Community Park’s redevelopment.
“These parents and kids need to have a place where they can go and enjoy the coolness of the pool during the summertime, the playground, the tennis courts, all that Howell park offers,” Interim BREC Superintendent Janet Simmons said.
The new site was designed with flood and rain events in mind with a new pond, rain gardens and native plants being just a few of the measures to help with stormwater management. The original community center was ruined by a flood in 2016.
Friday also marked the start of Late Night Hype, a summer event series geared toward youth with games, food and rides. Simmons said more children and teens will want to come to Howell Park which she said would keep them out of trouble and may help reduce crime.
“One of the biggest problems with kids, no matter the socioeconomic class you’re in, is idle time,” she said.
Families said they are grateful for the event.
“It helps a lot, it helps keep kids out of the streets. You know? Keep them around kids they age instead of other people,” event goer Elijah Hughes said.
The next Late Night Hype is scheduled for June 20.
Registration Underway for YMCA Summer Soccer Program
CLARION, Pa. – The Clarion County YMCA is gearing up for a new season of Summer Soccer for youth. Kids from Clarion County and beyond are invited to join the program to build a solid foundation for team sports and learn soccer skills. YMCA Summer Soccer is a participation-based program for boys and girls in […]
CLARION, Pa. – The Clarion County YMCA is gearing up for a new season of Summer Soccer for youth. Kids from Clarion County and beyond are invited to join the program to build a solid foundation for team sports and learn soccer skills.
YMCA Summer Soccer is a participation-based program for boys and girls in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade (for the 2025-2026 school year)!
The YMCA program focuses on learning the fundamentals of soccer while fostering teamwork and sportsmanship. Volunteer coaches lead practices, and games are held every Saturday at the YMCA Sports Field on Mayfield Road.
The YMCA has revamped the program for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, ages 4 to 6, with a YMCA staff-led clinic-style program! This new structure is designed to improve their skills and knowledge of the game through drills, objective-based games, and scrimmages.
The program is led by Clarion County YMCA Associate Director, Max Krepps. Krepps has a background in Youth Sports, having served as the Youth Director at the Oil City YMCA for nine years.
Pre-K & K Division (Ages 4-6)
Meet on Mondays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. starting June 23rd
1st & 2nd Grade Division
Practices during the week to be determined by the coaches
Games at 9:00 a.m. on Saturdays, Starting July 12th
3rd, 4th & 5th Grade Division
Practices during the week to be determined by the coaches
Games at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays, starting July 12th
Register for YMCA Summer Soccer by June 19th at 5:00 p.m. to guarantee a team t-shirt! Teams will be created on June 20th, and parents will receive an email with team information, practice times, and schedules.
Registration is available ONLINE or by calling 814-764-3400.
Parents can also stop by the YMCA, located at 499 Mayfield Road in Clarion, to enroll their children.
Environmental issues plague Blue Hill Avenue – The Bay State Banner
Extreme heat, flooding and lack of tree coverage have serious effects on the well-being of community members Katarina Schmeiszer, Grace Sawin and Ada Spiwak Nicole Flynt and Al Peeples talk about how enviornmental issues affect the community. “Green” is not the word that comes to mind when walking down the Blue Hill Avenue corridor in […]
Extreme heat, flooding and lack of tree coverage have serious effects on the well-being of community members
Katarina Schmeiszer, Grace Sawin and Ada Spiwak
Nicole Flynt and Al Peeples talk about how enviornmental issues affect the community.
“Green” is not the word that comes to mind when walking down the Blue Hill Avenue corridor in lower Roxbury. Children play in parks with patchy grass and bathe in pools of rain and groundwater on a flooded street on a hot day in summer. This sea of tar and bare concrete isn’t a consequence of weather; it is a testament to the chronic lack of greenery in traditionally low-income and minority neighborhoods throughout Boston.
Environmental issues along Blue Hill Avenue
The area around Blue Hill Avenue, the main artery spanning Roxbury and Dorchester — what the City of Boston describes as “Boston’s central spine” — is an urban heat island, where a high concentration of concrete and a lack of green spaces can lead to local temperatures up to 7 F higher than surrounding areas. The area is historically home to Boston’s Black and immigrant communities.
Each neighborhood is part of Boston’s urban heat island and is hotter than the surrounding areas, but areas like Downtown Boston benefit from increased tree coverage, which Roxbury and Dorchester lack. Source: City of Boston
Aljemall Peebles grew up on Blue Hill Avenue and is now a youth project director for Project RIGHT (Rebuild and Improve Grove Hall Together), a collaborative organization that is working to address issues of housing, violence and economic development in Grove Hall.. He has seen how the community has reacted to environmental stressors and is concerned about how excessive heat leads to more violence.
Peebles’ experiences have led to his role as a youth activity worker for Project RIGHT, which he joined to run the youth basketball league. Growing up, Peebles loved to play sports but had no access to organized leagues. . The community has been able to expand these youth programs despite adequate resources, such as proper courts or buildings with air conditioners, being available. Last summer, during a pilot program in the new facilities, temperatures reached 95 F.
Aljemall Peebles grew up on Blue Hill Avenue and is now a youth project director for Project RIGHT (Rebuild and Improve Grove Hall Together), a collaborative organization that is working to address issues of housing, violence and economic development in Grove Hall.. He has seen how the community has reacted to environmental stressors and is concerned about how excessive heat leads to more violence.
Peebles’ experiences have led to his role as a youth activity worker for Project RIGHT, which he joined to run the youth basketball league. Growing up, Peebles loved to play sports but had no access to organized leagues. . The community has been able to expand these youth programs despite adequate resources, such as proper courts or buildings with air conditioners, being available. Last summer, during a pilot program in the new facilities, temperatures reached 95 F.
Heat islands not only exacerbate the demands for technologies that emit large amounts of climate-warming carbon, like air conditioning, but they can also worsen air quality, contributing to respiratory issues and other pulmonary health effects. In 2023, according to data from the Boston Public Health Asthma Report Roxbury and Dorchester ranked the second highest in asthma rates.
In Boston, areas such as Roxbury, the South End and Dorchester, as well as Allston and Brighton, have elevated surface temperatures.
Community Impact
Residents of Blue Hill Avenue feel these impacts every day, and as the warmer seasons approach, community members brace for extreme heat.
According to a survey conducted by the city of Boston, the burden of heat exposure in residential homes “falls disproportionately on Black and Latinx communities.” Residents often feel too hot to stay home during warmer days, leading them to find refuge in community centers.
Al Peeples, youth program director for Project RIGHT, is working to address violence in his neighborhood, which is exacerbated by the disproportionately high heat Blue Hill Avenue experiences.
“We’re coming up on the summer, you will see how hot it is around here. And there’s only one cooling center… When you have a lack of cooling centers and nowhere for teenagers to go that creates a problem,” said Peeples.
Other than feeling excessive heat, residents surrounding Blue Hill Avenue also face adverse health effects because of increased dust and particulate matter in the air from pollution and mold from flooding.
“There are health implications of these issues. For example, asthma due to mold from flooding or due to air pollution,” said Moira Zellner, professor of public policy and urban affairs at Northeastern University and director/project lead of Project Common SENSES, a collaboration between Northeastern University, the communities in Roxbury and Dorchester and the City of Boston.
Project Common Senses supports environmental justice action for the neighborhoods along Blue Hill Ave. by deploying environmental sensors to make more informed decisions about green infrastructure. At the time of publication, the project has lost funding due to the Trump administration policies on diversity, equity and inclusion and National Science Foundation grant cuts.
Nicole Flynt, Grove Hall Community Coordinator for Project RIGHT and Common SENSES, said that increased construction in the area also leads to environmental is sues. The construction causes noise as well as air pollution. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, excessive dust created by construction must be maintained through filters or water hoses to prevent spreading. OSHA also states that construction dust, including crystalline silica, can cause deadly forms of lung cancer if inhaled. Flynt said these controls are not in place in her neighborhood.
“This soot and dirt residue, or whatever residue you want to call it, on the houses, on the cars. On the sidewalks. It’s all over, and if it’s on your car, on your house, on your sidewalk, it’s in your mouth and your lungs,” Flynt said.
Sensors along Blue Hill Avenue show high levels of pollutants
CommonSENSES’ map provides real-time levels of particulate matter (PM) recorded by sensors in the area.
CommonSENSES’ map provides real-time levels of particulate matter (PM) recorded by sensors in the area.
Looking Ahead
Heat islands are more intense in areas with less tree coverage. While these areas already had more tree coverage than the downtown areas, minimal efforts have been made to increase tree coverage here to help combat intense heat.
You said:
This is Boston, divided up by neighborhood and where Blue Hill Avenue runs in Boston. Blue Hill Avenue runs through Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan to the edges of the city.
Here are the asthma emergency department visits among 5 to 17 year olds in Boston per 10,000 residents age 5-17. Note: Dorchester is the average of two rates. From the most recent City of Boston Heat Resilliance Plan (2023), ED visit data from 2014-2015
Here is the change in tree coverage by Boston neighborhoods. In Roxbury and Dorchester, where Blue Hill Ave runs, tree coverage has either decreased (lightest green at -0.9) or remained constant (slightly darker at 0.0).
Residents said the biggest factor that made their neighborhood hotter than other places in Boston, the most common answer was “very few trees, according to a streets and corridors survey conducted by the city of Boston,
Mockup of what an area along Blue Hill Avenue could look like with more trees. This lot is located at 639 Warren Street which currently has a plan in development to add a large residential and commercial building.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, areas with more tree coverage can be up to 7 F cooler than areas without.
Community Action
Groups like Project RIGHT are working to achieve their goals through community engagement and activism.
“It’s an uphill battle, but what’s so amazing is the people. The community members that are constant. Constant, and steadfast, and resilient…they are here for the long run,” said Flynt.
Project RIGHT hopes to mitigate violence through community and youth involvement and create spaces that promote community building and currently has ongoing programs focusing on arts, civic engagement, public safety, sports, substance use, trauma and youth development.
Nicole Flynt is the Grove Hall Community Leader for both Project RIGHT and Project Common SENSES, two groups working to combat the environmental injustice on Blue Hill Avenue.
“When it comes to dense or moderate to low income, or even I dare say Black and brown neighborhoods…we’re overlooked a lot,” said Flynt. “And that’s not right at all. So we have to make a change.”
For community members like Flynt, these changes would improve their quality of life for generations to come.
“I have a grandson, he is 4 years old, I want him to live a good life. I want him to run in some grass, and feel the trees and breathe fresh air without having to leave the neighborhood. We always have to leave, why do we have to leave?” said Flynt.
Khalil Barnes is hosting a free youth football camp at Clarke Central
Clemson safety and North Oconee graduate Khalil Barnes is home in the Athens area to host a free youth football camp. The camp, which is set up for boys and girls ages 8-12, is to be held on Saturday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Billy Henderson Stadium, home of the Clarke […]
Clemson safety and North Oconee graduate Khalil Barnes is home in the Athens area to host a free youth football camp.
The camp, which is set up for boys and girls ages 8-12, is to be held on Saturday, June 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Billy Henderson Stadium, home of the Clarke Central Gladiators located at 350 S. Milledge Ave.
Campers will receive free giveaways, t-shirts, lunch and performance training by the college junior. Registration is now closed, as the event has hit capacity.
MACF invests in area rural communities | News, Sports, Jobs
Submitted Photo Minot Area Community Foundation presents a grant to the Burlington Recreation Commission. From left are Jason Zimmerman, MACF; Sarah Karhoff, recreation commission; Staci Kenney, MACF; and Shannon Hanson, recreation commission. The Minot Area Community Foundation (MACF) has announced recent rural grant recipients. Recipients include Lake County Historical Society in Kenmare, Glenburn Booster Club, […]
Submitted Photo
Minot Area Community Foundation presents a grant to the Burlington Recreation Commission. From left are Jason Zimmerman, MACF; Sarah Karhoff, recreation commission; Staci Kenney, MACF; and Shannon Hanson, recreation commission.
The Minot Area Community Foundation (MACF) has announced recent rural grant recipients.
Recipients include Lake County Historical Society in Kenmare, Glenburn Booster Club, Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood Public School District and Burlington Recreation Commission.
A $4,000 grant from MACF’s Mabel Kizima Fund was awarded to Lake County Historical Society to support the construction of an accessible boardwalk at the Pioneer Village in Kenmare. The boardwalk connects newly constructed ADA-compliant restrooms to the historical site, which includes 27 historic buildings and various exhibits, such as a dress shop, toy museum and military museum. It was built entirely by volunteers in the community.
A $5,000 grant from the Mike & Dorothy Dolan Fund was provided through the Glenburn Booster Club to help Glenburn Public School install a new playground structure, surfacing and basketball hoops. The existing equipment is more than 30 years old and beyond repair. This project serves students in Glenburn and neighboring communities, including Minot Air Force Base, Deering, Lansford and Ruthville.
A $10,000 grant, also from the Mike & Dorothy Dolan Fund, was awarded to the M-L-S school to replace the original gym floor at the high school.
Submitted Photo
Minot Area Community Foundation presents a grant to the M-L-S school. From left are: back, Jason Zimmerman with MACF, Jordyn Moberg, Emerson Lamb, Robert Zumbaum, Carson Nett, Lawson Kersten, Bryce Johnson, Ryan Anderson, Heidi Newgard; front, Sidney Knutson, Sydney Guenthner, Raegan Fitzsimmons, Staci Kenney with MACF, Matt Undlin, Abigail Buynak, Brooks Tracey, Samantha Berg and Kaden Brekhus.
A $4,050 grant from the Mike & Dorothy Dolan Fund was awarded to the Burlington Recreation Commission to support the 2025 youth sports season. The funding will go toward equipment and field supplies for programs such as Tiny Tots, T-ball for Tots, Coach Pitch & Cal Ripken baseball and elementary softball.
“Rural communities are the heart of our region, and their well-being is essential to the strength of our entire area,” said MACF President Jason Zimmerman in a news release. “We’re honored to support projects that not only meet immediate needs but also help build lasting infrastructure, community pride and inclusive spaces for generations to come.”
Submitted Photo
Minot Area Community Foundation presents a grant to the Burlington Recreation Commission. From left are Jason Zimmerman, MACF; Sarah Karhoff, recreation commission; Staci Kenney, MACF; and Shannon Hanson, recreation commission.
Submitted Photo
Minot Area Community Foundation presents a grant to the M-L-S school. From left are: back, Jason Zimmerman with MACF, Jordyn Moberg, Emerson Lamb, Robert Zumbaum, Carson Nett, Lawson Kersten, Bryce Johnson, Ryan Anderson, Heidi Newgard; front, Sidney Knutson, Sydney Guenthner, Raegan Fitzsimmons, Staci Kenney with MACF, Matt Undlin, Abigail Buynak, Brooks Tracey, Samantha Berg and Kaden Brekhus.
Submitted Photo
From left, Glenburn School Superintendent Larry Derr and Jaime Hauge of the Glenburn Booster Club hold a symbolic check for playground equipment, presented by Staci Kenney and Jason Zimmerman with Minot Area Community Foundation.
Submitted Photo
From left, Glenburn School Superintendent Larry Derr and Jaime Hauge of the Glenburn Booster Club hold a symbolic check for playground equipment, presented by Staci Kenney and Jason Zimmerman with Minot Area Community Foundation.
Norsk Hostfest has announced it is inviting members of the community to take part in the time-honored tradition of …
WILLISTON – A former instructor at Williston State College has filed a discrimination and retaliation complaint …
MAX – The North Dakota Highway Patrol has released the names of two of the individuals injured in a fatal crash …
