 September/October 2001 (XXXIX 4) |
o you know who the PYM Middle School Friends are? There may be some in your Meeting. Or you may know young people who think they are the only Quakers their age in the whole world and would really enjoy meeting some others.
Middle School Friends is the youth group for 11-14-year-olds from the Meetings of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. We spend weekends together through the school year and have one long gathering in the summer. This past year we had Arts Camp at the Burlington Conference Center, did a Friends Workcamp in West Philadelphia, and spent one weekend each at Burlington, Sadsbury, Haverford and Woodstown Meetings. We also attended Caln Quarterly Meeting at Camp Swatara. We get around!
Themes included “We are the builders” (of community), “You’re a Quaker, You Mean Amish, Right?/Simplicity” and “The Places Stories Will Take Us.” Sometimes we go on field trips; sometimes people come and lead workshops for us; we play and sing and do art and worship together. People make special friends from all over the place—often they have come from as many as 20 different Meetings.
Really special people to us are Friendly Presences—adults and high schoolers who stay with us and help make gatherings safe and fun for everyone. We have been blessed with a devoted group that shifts and changes as middle schoolers move on and high schoolers graduate. We gain new people every year—maybe you will be one of them this year! Bring us your talents and passions in art or music or social justice or play or cooking! We would love to meet you and we guarantee that you will have plenty of fun, too.
There will be a training led by Cookie Caldwell, Helen Fields, Gail Newbold and Melanie Douty to help us all to be more helpful to young people at gatherings, more present and able to creatively handle those moments that crop up from time to time when common sense has not been borrowed or lent and intervention is necessary. This will happen at Wrightstown Meeting (PA) on Saturday, September 29, at the You Can Do It! Day conference. Call for more information.
My work as Middle School Friends program coordinator is supposed to be guided by You. What do you think these young people need to grow and flourish? What is your definition of religious education in a Quaker context? What cool cultural/Quaker historical/fun places in your region would be good for us to visit? How can I help support your Meeting’s effort to reach out to older young people? Please e-mail any ideas or thoughts to me and I will greatly appreciate them. You can also come to Friends Center in Philadelphia on September 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. for a planning meeting. Hope to see you at a gathering this year.
My e-mail address is Melanied@pym.org and my phone number is 215-241-7171.
Melanie Douty
Radnor Meeting (PA)
Middle School Friends program coordinator
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM