Island teens provided with a menu of activities
Aside from school-based choices, community offers variety of alternatives
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

Third in series

It is a fact that cannot be ignored - for many children both parents need to work to make ends meet. Generally speaking, it is safe to say that the days when children were greeted at home after school by an aproned mother holding a pan of freshly baked cookies are over.

 

Consequently, it has become important to families and communities to provide safe, interesting activities in the unsupervised hours between the end of the school day and dinner time and also during unstructured hours on school holidays and weekends. Through these activities, teens not only stay occupied and have a good time, they meet adults they can trust and talk to about their feelings when family is not available or when the need to talk is urgent.

Currently, there is just one year-round movie theater open on Nantucket, and none of the island's major nightclubs offer special times for the under-21 crowd. Still, the schools have an array of sports, clubs and programs, and Nantucket is gathering momentum in presenting an increasingly varied selection of activities kids may choose from throughout the year.

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB

Once geared to little kids and young adolescents, the club is adding to its roster of activities for older teens. Teen program director Cory Shepherd explained that the club gives teens priority in its computer lab on Mondays after school until 6 p.m. On Tuesdays teens have free choice to play pingpong, board games and sometimes go on field trips. At 5 p.m. on Wednesdays the club hosts art for teens, spanning culinary arts, collage, painting and drawing. Thursday nights from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. there is a teen cooking class, then at 6:30 p.m. an X-Box tournament which is followed by a dance class from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Fridays, if there is enough interest, there are youth field trips starting at 3:30 p.m., with a teen dance class at 6 p.m. featuring salsa, hip hop, meringue and fusion. In addition, the club is open for teens only on Friday nights from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. when they can play music, enjoy an open gym, cook and watch movies. On Saturday nights from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. the club is again dedicated to teen use with programs similar to Friday's. Shepherd said the staff is working on continuing to expand teen programs, including bringing in local youth bands to perform on weekend nights.

PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION

The new Parks and Rec skateboard park on Backus Lane is open after school and on weekends. The Teen Center on First Way presents a safe place for youth to congregate and is open from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. The center has a TV and computers, a combination pool and ping-pong table, board and video games and sometimes plays host to island bands. There is a sign-in, signout policy for visitors.

Parks and Recreation Director Jim Manchester grew up on Nantucket and knows that there has always been a concern about whether island kids have enough to do to stay out of harm's way.

"Most [kids anywhere] can't have a parent at home, so how can we help the process?" he asked. "There has always been an urgency and need [here]. You need to have a place that is comfortable to go to without a lot of regimentation."

NANTUCKET ICE

The island's ice rink off Surfside Road hosts weekend evening skate times for pre-teens and teens with game skates and DJ music. Apizza skate party for teens is coming soon and, funded through grants, will continue on Friday and Saturday nights

about twice a month through

June. In the summer, Nantucket

Ice hosts skating and hockey clinics. Staff is working to develop more teen programs.

MARIA MITCHELL ASSOCIATION

On January 25, the Maria Mitchell Association held its first meeting of "The Outsiders," a name chosen by the dozen teenagers who attended the session geared to beginning a new yearround club. The club is a collaborative effort between the MMA and Strong Wings Adventure School to encourage island teens to participate in outdoor activities that interest them, such as hiking, fishing, kayaking, traveling to mainland camps and letter boxing. The letter boxing model the MMA is using is called geocaching and utilizes the GPS (global positioning system) to discover location coordinates of hidden treasures.

The MMA also hosts a naturalist-intraining program for teens during the summer when youth assist association interns with children's environmental classes. That program requires a commitment of at least one week, working from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. The application form is on the MMA Website. The new club's membership is limited, but there are still openings. Interested teens can sign up and obtain information about the next meeting by calling Darcie Vallant at 228-9198 or e-mailing her at dvallant@ mmo.org.

STRONG WINGS ADVENTURE SCHOOL

Strong Wings Director John Simms said his organization does not have a drop-in center approach, but rather specific programs such as High Adventures, a teen offering of three to five off-island field trips per year when youths rock climb, go snowshoeing and backpacking and the like. Currently, Strong Wings is trying to formulate weekend night programs on Nantucket.

"You can never have enough things to do on an island, but it's not the lack of things to do, it's a lack of resources - enough comfort people to share really personal and private things with [that youth need]," said Simms, who began Strong Wings 22 years ago. "In my mind, one of the most important changes on the island will be a safe place - a sounding board where [teens] can talk without alarms going off."

NANTUCKET COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER

For teens with musical interests, the Nantucket Community Music Center has several options during the year, explained director Mollie Glazer. For children ages six to 14, a Youth Chorus meets Mondays at 4 p.m. at St. Paul's Church parish house. There is no religious affiliation between the chorus and its rehearsal location. On Wednesday nights at 6:30 p.m. there is a middle school jazz band which gathers at the high school music room. This spring the NCMC will host a teen musical theater class.

Ongoing private lessons in saxophone, violin, cello, piano, drums, flute and voice are available. The center is in the process of forming group classes of teens wanting to learn harmonica and ukelele. Those interested may call 228-3352 to enroll. There are already classes established on Saturdays at the high school for blues guitar and music theory and song writing. Other sessions for ages 13 years to adult are available through a collaboration between NCMC and the Nantucket Community School.

NANTUCKET ATHENEUM

Nantucket's Atheneum has always centered around literacy and learning, but it is beginning to sponsor a variety of programs, both educational and entertaining in nature, to fulfill the needs of island youth. A new teen feature was initiated on Jan. 11.

Setting aside a portion of the library's Great Hall, the Atheneum introduced a special reading space with tables and chairs, two study areas for individual use, a central table for computer use or joint study times and the inclusion of all the youth collections including reference materials. Soon, games such as chess will be offered. This area is open to teens whenever the library is open. Young adult staff have been added to the reference library crew and are available Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Children's Librarian Maggie Head also explained that the Atheneum has started a young adult DVD collection and audio book collection, as well as a graphic novel collection (where stories are told through illustrations with accompanying text). Some of these ideas generated from the Atheneum's Teen Advisory Board, always open to new members. One of the board's first ideas was to host Open Mic Night, a Friday night teen event where kids can sing, dance, play instruments or read poetry. Open Mic began last year and is continuing because of its popularity. So far, two more of the events are planned for early March and early April.

The Atheneum also offers a monthly teen book club gathering, yoga for teens from April through September, open hours during school exam weeks featuring "famous brownies," and to-be-announced summer youth workshops that may extend into the academic year calendar.

TWN

Further, the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket continues to expand its youth programming, offering parts for youth in plays staged at various times during the year.

CHURCHES

Island churches of all denominations have youth groups where teens can gather comfortably to talk, have pizza, watch movies and just relax in a safe environment.

GETTING A JOB

There is always babysitting, mowing lawns and bagging groceries, but for teens who want to earn money while learning a skill the island has other choices. Employment opportunities do change during the year, with winter presenting the fewest possibilities for after school and weekend jobs because business slows down during the off-season.

The island's golf clubs offer varied employment. Miacomet Golf Club hires both girls and boys for a number of duties, with jobs starting when school closes in mid-June and lasting into the fall. Sankaty Head Golf Club has run a caddy camp for years and may have other work available for teens.

The town's Parks and Recreation Department hires teens to tend its tennis courts at Jetties Beach during the summer, helping clean courts, schedule matches and collect fees.

Local bike shops hire teens, with Young's Bike Shop having a historic record of bringing in island youth for sales and repair positions, although the number of jobs there is limited and available mainly during the summer.

The Nantucket Boat Basin is another business with a long history of hiring teens. From mid-June until Labor Day, teens can work as fuel dock distributors, in the office, as dock attendants, cleaning basin facilities and as "rubbish technicians." Work may extend into weekends during the fall, according

to need. I

ENOUGH TO DO?

 

Do you believe island teens have enough activities to choose from? If not, what do you wish could be added?

Email your responses to: don@nantucketindependent. com. Mail to: Don Costanzo, Editor, The Nantucket Independent, 15 North Beach St., 02554. Or fax: 508- 228-4858.

To protect personal privacy and encourage responses, we will not print the names of respondents.