Stuff the Bus School Supply Drive

Join us this weekend as we team up with Walmart and Durham School Services to provide children and families in need with a fresh start to the school year. We will be collecting donations of new school supplies for local school children.

Come see us Saturday, August 10th and Sunday, August 11th from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm at Walmart in Cromwell. For more information, please click here.

Can't make it down this weekend? Don't worry. We will be collecting supplies from Monday, August 12th to Friday, August 16th at the Y in Middletown. Simply drop your donated supplies off at the front desk.

Thanks for donating and we hope to see you there!

One of our members dropping donated supplies off at the Y!

Y staff member Kevin Devery braves the rain on Friday to collect supplies!

Middlesex YMCA Summer Enrichment & Sports Camps

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all take a summer break like our kids? Summer brings back so many great memories for me. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend lots of time outside riding my bike, playing with my friends, going to the beach and spending a couple sessions out at YMCA Camp Ingersoll. All of those individual experiences added up to a well rounded summer where I got to play, socialize and learn about the world around me. Back when I was growing up the world was a little different; we were able to go outside for the day with friends and come back when it got dark. Our parents would have a neighbor watch us and we would check in once in a while with them. Although the world has changed greatly since I was a kid, children still want the same thing out of a summer vacation; to be active, play with friends and have fun adventures.

While I was fortunate to have the childhood summer experience I shared, many children do not have the same experience. Once school closes, some children and families struggle to gain access to quality enriching educational opportunities that a summer camp experience, family vacation or trips to local libraries or museums can offer. As a result, summer learning loss can occur.  Summer learning loss is the loss of academic knowledge and skills during the summer months as a result of being out of school. The National Summer Learning Institute explains that most of the learning loss affects the reading and mathematical skills over this two months time and parents consistently say that summer is the most difficult time for them to find productive things for their children to do. 

Everyone needs ongoing opportunities to learn and practice skills to become successful. This is even more important for children during the summer months. YMCAs are perfectly positioned to help children battle summer learning loss through day camp programming. One of the ways that our Y is helping children battle learning loss through the summer is through our Summer Enrichment Camp. The Summer Enrichment Camp offers eight weeks of discovery and hands on fun for children entering 1st though 6th grade. Each week a different theme engages children in a fun filled journey of experiential learning. This program is a great fit for children who like art, science and creative exploration. Mornings are spent diving into theme filled activities and afternoons are full of recreation and play. A daily recreational swim, optional swim lessons and a field trip complete each exciting week! Our goal is to offer children an opportunity to explore their interests, build their knowledge and skills and use their creative spirit during the summer months. Our intention is to enrich each child’s summer vacation with a variety of fun activities. 

NEW SPORTS PROGRAMS!

Does your child enjoy sports? We are now offering four weeks of new sports programs for children entering 3rd through 6th grades. These programs are perfect for kids who enjoy athletics and want to learn some new games and brush up on basic skills.

For more information about our Summer Enrichment & Sports Program please click here to visit our website or contact Melanie Carfora at 860.343.6208 or Kevin Cassesse at 860.343.6211.

Keigwin Middle School Scholars in Action Program

Often when people think of the term “child care”, their minds are automatically conditioned to envision preschool childcare centers or occasionally before and after school programs for elementary school children. We seldom recognize that this term also encompasses an often overlooked, but incredibly crucial, age group. On any given afternoon, there are 3.7 million unsupervised middle school children, left to their own devices after the school day ends. 

Fortunately, here in Middletown, the benefits of quality afterschool programming are felt by this key age group. At Keigwin Middle School, home of Middletown’s 6th graders, “The Scholars in Action Program” provides after school academic support, recreational and environmental science enrichment related activities, field trips and group projects. Thanks in large part to 21st Century Community Learning Center grant funding, Keigwin School partners with the Northern Middlesex YMCA, Middletown High School, and other choice enrichment groups to “foster within students an understanding of the relationships between human beings, the natural world, energy and the impacts of change on these systems” (Scholars in Action Mission Statement). Each week, the Y provides partner enrichment, including recreational and environmental science activities to program participants.  

The ability of “Scholars in Action” to help fill the void in structured after school activities is essential in the continued personal growth of its participants. The vital benefits provided to the middle school children enrolled in the program make us proud to be a partner and to continuously expand our child care programming, reaching the maximum number of youth we can. If you would like more information about the Scholars in Action program provided at Keigwin Middle School, please contact Maegan Musanti at mmusanti@midymca.org or (860) 343-6247.

Check out some pictures below from the Scholars in Action recent Y Egg Drop Challenge! Six teams worked together using paper plates, straws, and tape to engineer structures that would hopefully prevent a raw egg from breaking when dropped from three different heights!

Some of the members of The Purple Ninjas work together on their Egg Holder!

Team Purple Ninjas!

Team Holla Backk hard at work!

Team Doggies with their final product!

Team Purple shows off their flying saucer egg holder!

Will the egg survive the initial drop?

 The second round!

Ceiling height!