This year’s theme for our Christmas Workshop was “Get a little. Give a lot.”. The teens started out the day with “Get a little” by decorating their Gingerbread House with a vast array of assorted candies. Each house was very unique and three of the teens won a gift card for their design. Later in the evening, teens did a White Elephant gift exchange and it was hilarious to see some of the gifts they opened!

The teens had opportunities to “Give a lot.” as they made fresh evergreen swags to give to their mothers or family member, baked and packaged cookies, and filled jars with dry soup ingredients to be given out in food baskets throughout the community. The grumbles of disinterest soon gave way to teens wanting to make more.

The Sunday following the workshop, PVYC teens joined Penns Valley Community Church to fill baskets with donated food items and the cookies and soup jars they had put together during the workshop. The  42 baskets were given out to families in our community, some of whom were families of our PVYC teens.

For the second year, Penns Valley Youth Center and Penns Valley Community Church joined together to to provide a Thanksgiving dinner for our community. This year, despite the 5 inches of snow that accumulated through out the day, we served over 200 people in the gym at the Old Gregg School Community Center and packed up over 50 to-go meals. The gym was full of delicious aromas and the sound of friends and neighbors greeting each other. What brings people together better than food?!

The day began around 9am with setting up the tables and organizing the place settings. Once that task was complete, the preparations for cooking began! Soon the kitchen was all a bustle with volunteers making stuffing and all of the other delicious foods that were to be served that evening.

The calm before the storm (although the literal snowstorm was still in effect), came at lunchtime when the volunteers had a break to eat lunch and tell stories of the olden days. It was an amazing time of fellowship as multiple generations sat around the table and shared.

Once 4pm rolled around, it was back to the hurried work of finishing the food preparation, cutting deserts, and filling drink dispensers. Teens from the youth center helped with this work, and made signs for the entry way, as well. Everything was set and the doors were ready to be opened. A few people showed up early but we were happy to welcome them. Once we gave thanks to God for the food, the line for the food formed and the rest is history.

We are so grateful for all that was provided for this meal by the generous people of Penns Valley. We had a little left over and blessed the volunteers who worked tirelessly that day. Thank you to everyone who was involved and we look forward to doing it again next year! We love Penns Valley!

We have all experienced a time where we wore a “label” that someone placed on us or that we let our circumstances define us as. Teens struggle with negative labels every day. We took 26 teens on an overnight retreat to Kamp K to talk about their labels and what is really true about them…that they are beautifully and wonderfully made. We also had a great time growing closer as a group through an outdoor challenge course and then cheered each other on as we participated in a zip line. It is during events like these that the teens open up about their struggles in life and real emotional healing begins.  We love to have fun but we also love to grow closer as the PVYC family!

Check out pictures from the retreat and other events on our Facebook page!

What is one of the biggest traditions at any football game? A tailgate party! We love to show our support for PVYC students who participate in sports so this year we set up a tailgate at the homecoming football game for the Penns Valley Rams.  We had lots of great food and games! Not to mention, we got to meet so many new teens and community members! We hope to continue the tradition next year!

If you were given the option during your summer break to go to a camp with the word “Serve” in the name, would you be excited to go?

Our teens were! For the third year in a row, we lined up service projects around Penns Valley and got our teens’, and staffs’, hands (and clothes) a little dirty. ServeCamp, as it is aptly named, is an opportunity for teens to give back to our community by serving in various ways. Our group this year consisted of 22 students and 8 of our mostly-volunteer staff, spending four days pulling weeds, painting, cleaning, mulching, and just as importantly, building relationships.

The theme for this year was “Armed and Dangerous”.  We wanted to encourage teens to discover the gifts and talents that they have and then equip them to use those gifts to impact the world.

We spent each day at different job sites around the valley. Teens cut down brush along Penns Creek at Corburn  Park and cleaned the playground there. Another group cleaned the picnic areas at the pool in Millheim. Other projects included painting the ballfield buildings at the Old Gregg School Community Center, stacking straw bales off of wagons, painting hay wagons, mulching trails and seating areas, and moving firewood at Krislund Camp, among other projects.

In the evenings we went back to Krislund Camp for dinner and then each night had a guest speaker challenge the teens to be “armed and dangerous, and reiterating to them how loved and important they each are individually. After a long days work, we closed out each night with a fire, s’mores and mountain pies.

Something new we did this year was rock wall climbing. Our group had to hike 1.5 miles up a mountain to get to the wall and that was a challenge in itself that a few of our teens had to overcome. We were so proud of them when they did! Many teens made it to the top of the wall, but even the ones who didn’t at least tried and gave it their all. The teens learned how to encourage one another and this activity really strengthened the friendships of everyone in the group.

Despite the occasional groans about how tired they were, we heard teens talking about how they didn’t want the week to end and how they can’t wait for next year! Check out more pictures on our Facebook page!