At the Jamestown Area YMCA's annual meeting held recently, Chautauqua Striders was honored with the Partner with Youth Award. Presented through a poem by Ronda Piazza, YMCA child care executive; John Barber, teen director; and Max Martin, Eastside YMCA branch manager, this award was presented to the organization for their support and involvement for the youth in the local community.
With the words "this poem is for our good friends upstairs, it's Striders of course - an organization that cares. So here's to you friends, with gratitude, too, we want you to know that we're better with you so from all of us, your friends at Y, thank you to Striders you help us to fly," the award was accepted by Deb Kathman, Chautauqua Striders executive director.
"We were surprised and honored to be the recipient of the Partner with Youth Award," said Kathman. "Our staff has worked together for many years developing exemplary programs for area youth. We share a common concern for our youth and work diligently to help them achieve personal success."
Article Photos
A group of Chautauqua Striders staff received the YMCA Partner with Youth Award at the Y’s annual meeting held recently. Front row, from left, are Annette Bittorf, Patti Brumbaugh, Deb Kathman, and Tiffany Hodges of Chautauqua Striders and Ronda Piazza, John Barber, and Max Martin of the Jamestown Area YMCAs. Back row, from left, are Michelle Waterman, Jeanne Larson, David Reinhardt and Bruce Larson of Chautauqua Striders.
The partnership between the Y and Chautauqua Striders, who is housed on the second floor of the Jamestown YMCA, has included mentoring relationships, teen programming, tutoring, homework help, academic support, program development, professional development events and various other collaborations.
"We have a strong partnership and mutual respect for one another which makes working together almost effortless," said Barber.
This summer, the YMCA has teamed up with Striders in an effort to reduce summer learning loss for day campers at the downtown and Eastside location by incorporating fun, hands-on activities for campers that will use various language art and math skills that students learn during the school year.
"Campers will be engaged activities that will sharpen these skills in a camp setting which gives provides freedom to have fun, experiment, discover, explore and learn," said Piazza.