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Postal carriers’ Food Drive a Big Success for MTCC
By Lisa Hall
On Saturday, May 9, Middle Tyger Community Center was fortunate to be a drop-off site for the 2009 Postal Carriers’ Food Drive. This endeavor is held each year at this time, and people are encouraged to leave a bag of canned goods and/or other non-perishables near their mailboxes for postal carriers to pick up and deliver to organizations to help stock food pantries. The generosity of people in the Middle Tyger area went a long way towards “Stamping Out Hunger” in our community.
The postal carriers in Duncan, Lyman and Wellford did a great job of gathering up the food left by generous residents on their routes, then brought the food collected to the Middle Tyger Community Center. Once at MTCC, volunteers from the Beta Club at James F. Byrnes Freshman Academy (led by their sponsor Kelly Jewett), were poised and ready to unload 7,630 pounds of canned and dry goods of every sort imaginable. All this food was sorted and put away to be given out later to families in need by District Five Family Ministries’ staff at MTCC. Once again, our community gives from the heart!
Lyn Turner, Case Manager for District Five Family Ministries, and organizer of the volunteers who unloaded and stocked the food, said, “My amazement of the generosity of this community is only matched by my gratitude. Even in tough financial times, those who can, do! I just want to thank everyone who continues to support our community through their generous gifts.”
GED Graduation Ceremony
By Lisa Hall
Middle Tyger Community Center will hold a graduation ceremony to recognize graduates who have participated in the programs offered at MTCC. Adolescent mothers graduating from Byrnes High School, students achieving their GED Certificates, and toddlers graduating to 4-K will be honored at a special ceremony to be held Tuesday, May 19 at 4:00 P.M. in the sanctuary at Lyman First Baptist Church. Middle Tyger Community Center Board of Trustees, Staff, Volunteers, and family and friends of the graduates are invited to attend this occasion to show support and encouragement for these students who have worked so diligently to achieve their educational goals. A reception, graciously prepared by church members, will follow in Kings Hall located at the church.
The building blocks of Life: All Teens Need Assets
By Donna Dawkins
MTCC Family Support
Services Coordinator
On the day our children were born, nobody congratulated us, then handed us an all - inclusive parenting manual. Even if someone had, would we have read it immediately from cover to cover or would we have opened the book only at a time of desperation?
While there is no need to be desperate, there is a need to equip our children with what they need to make healthy choices.
We can be instrumental in cultivating “developmental assets” that will strengthen our children/teens and serve them for life – in school, in the workplace and in their personal relationships. For that reason, these Developmental Assets can be viewed as the “Building Blocks of Life” (source: Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth):
Every child needs:
Support: To experience people and places that are acceptable and loving empowerment: To know they are valued and valuable.
Boundaries & Expectations: To understand the limits that lead to possibilities.
Constructive Use of Time: To be involved in enriching and structured activities.
Commitment to Learning: To believe that education is important and engaging.
Positive Values: To care for others and hold high standards for self.
Social Competencies: To develop people skills and meaningful relationships for life.
Positive Identity: To believe in their personal power, purpose, and potential.
Your daily interactions with your children and other youth DO make a difference! Every day we are building blocks for life; inspiring our children and teenagers to reach great heights, as they stand on the blocks we have helped them build.
“Much of the work of asset building occurs for free. It is the stuff people do in their everyday lives,” says Peter L. Benson, Ph.D., in All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents.
May is Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. Despite a steady decline in numbers, each year almost an estimated million teens all over the United States become pregnant. It remains true that the U. S. has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the industrialized world. Likewise, Spartanburg is experiencing an increase in the number of adolescent pregnancies among youth 10-19. Perhaps, a beginning to a solution of teenage pregnancies lies with us, parents and other caring adults. We really don’t need scary statistics to influence us to do something. Within our hearts, we know we must to something for the wellbeing of our children.
For more information or to schedule a parent workshop on Asset Building, please contact Donna Dawkins at Middle Tyger Community Center:
84 Groce Road, Lyman, SC 29365 ; 864-439-7760 or HYPERLINK “mailto:donna.dawkins@spart5.net” donna.dawkins@spart5.net.
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