What’s Happening at the Y – Good Friday programs, swim try outs and more

Try the Y!

The Y is free and open to all on Mondays throughout March. Just stop by 276 Church
Street with a valid ID, and they’ll waive the regular guest fees.

Registration for Late Spring Programs

Registration for Late Spring Programs opens March 26th for Y members and April 2nd for the community. Programs begin the week of April 23rd. Some highlights include:

  • NFL Flag Football League for grades 1-7. Participants will learn new skills and try different positions while playing 6 versus 6 flag football on the Y’s turf field. Sign up as an individual or create a team with friends.
  • Climbing Club for ages 7-12. Learn the fundamentals of climbing with a focus on teamwork as participants learn climbing terminology, how to back up a belay, foot technique and more.
  • Swim Lessons for all ages. Summer is right around the corner. Are you and your family ready? Start young in one of our infant or toddler swim classes and build your child’s confidence in and around water.

Visit wsymca.org to register online or stop by the Y’s Welcome Center at 276 Church Street, Newton.

School Holiday Programs on March 30th

The West Suburban YMCA is offering full day and half day program options on Good Friday.

  • Child Care Department – A well-rounded program that includes time for floor games, arts and crafts, snack, lunch and the option to swim. For more information or to sign up for this program, contact Director of Youth and Teen Programs, Jeremy Smith, at 617-244-6050 x3068.
  • Sports Department – For kids who like to be active and moving all day, sign up for the Y’s Good Friday Sports Program. Activities include Soccer, Basketball, Baseball, Floor Hockey, Flag Football, Capture the Flag, Battleship and more. For more information or to sign up for this program, contact Assistant Sports Director, Ray Isales, at 617-244-6050 x3131

Blue Waves Swim Try Outs

The Blue Waves Swim Team at the West Suburban YMCA is a nationally ranked competitive swim team for ages 6-17. All new swimmers looking to join the Blue Waves Swim Team for the Spring/Summer Long Course Season are required to try out. Try outs will be held April 3rd – 5th and swimmers must pre-register for a try out slot ($5 for members / $10 for non-members). Try out registration is available online at wsymca.org or by calling 617-244-6050 x3086.

What’s Happening at the Y – Summer Camps and Programs

Sign Up for Summer Camps!

All summer long, the West Suburban YMCA keeps kids engaged and safe with camp
programs. They inspire kids to work and play together, creating friendships that can last a
lifetime, and make sure all kids feel welcome and comfortable being themselves.
Registration is currently open for all WSYMCA summer camps! Sign up with a $100 deposit per session.

Day Camps – Weekly sessions, Monday-Friday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. Daily Swim lessons are included and extended care is available both in the morning and afternoon.

Camp Chickami is a traditional outdoor camp located in Wayland welcoming boys and girls ages 6-15. Bus transportation is available from the West Suburban YMCA and stops throughout Newton.

Camp Pikati, located at the West Suburban YMCA, welcomes kids between the ages of 3-15
years with a half-day option for our youngest campers (ages 3-4). Pikati campers enjoy weekly themes in the traditional camp program, or they can participate in Pikati Sports Camp.

Overnight Camp – Camp Frank A. Day is located in East Brookfield and welcomes boys and girls ages 7-15. Spanning 52 acres, Camp Frank A. Day has direct lake access with a beachfront, athletic fields, modern cabins, basketball courts, climbing towers and all the
facilities needed to run a fun and safe summer camp.

For more information on summer camps contact campings@wsymca.org, or call 617-244-
6050 x3008.

Summer Sessions from the YCCA (Ages 12 and up)

Summer Sessions is a one-of-a-kind collaborative summer music program where participants write and record their own songs over the course of two weeks.

Participants will build and improve upon the creative skills of songwriting, filming, audio
engineering, video editing, production, and instrumental or vocal performance while creating a complete, professional project featured on Spotify!

Session 1: July 2nd – 13th
Session 2: July 16th – 27th
Session 3: July 30th – August 10th
Session 4: August 13th – 24th

For more information, contact Kevin O’Connell at kevino@wsymca.org or 617-244-6050
x3208.

Financial Assistance is always available for Y Memberships and Programs

The West Suburban YMCA is a non-profit charitable organization and it is our mission to never turn anyone away due to their inability to pay. Please contact the Membership Department at 617-244-6050 x3653 for financial assistance with membership or program participation.

Congregation Dorshei Tzedek Religious School Open House

Prospective families are invited to an Open House at a Sunday morning Jewish learning community. Join at 9:30 for z’man rishon, where everyone comes together for a weekly assembly. When the students go to class, there will be time to meet with the school director and hear about the outline of the program. After that, a parent volunteer will take you on a tour of the school so you can see the learning in action. Childcare will be provided upon request.

To sign up to participate, please contact our Director of Congregational Learning, Rabbi Shahar Colt – dcl@dorsheitzedek.org. For more information on the West Newton congregation, please visit https://dorsheitzedek.org/

April 29th, 9:30 – 11:30 am
Jewish Community Day School, 57 Stanley Avenue, Watertown

Opera Camp: How to Create an Opera

VOICES Boston and Boston Lyric Opera are offering Opera Camp to singers entering 3rd-6th grade in the 2018-2019 school year.

Learn the process of creating an opera and try each step along the way! In the spirit of Boston Lyric Opera’s commitment to new works and BLO Education’s use of the Music! Words! Opera! curriculum, they want to hear youth voices. Through this hands-on opera day camp, facilitated and coached by experienced educators, youth will create an original opera “pitch” to present to BLO staff, including a sample of original music, story, libretto, staging and design concepts. For more information, contact Kalee at kburrows@voicesboston.org

Cost: $600 per student. $100 deposit to register
Registration Deadline: May 1st
Register by following this link: https://www.tfaforms.com/4663418

Camp dates July 30th – August 3rd, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm

Ride for Food 2018!

Join the Newton Food Pantry team participating in the Ride for Food! On September 23rd, their first ever team will be participating in this annual ride that supports food pantries, community farms and food rescue organizations and they need your help.

Why ride?

The NFP numbers demonstrate the need. They serve over 750 Newton residents each month and that number has been rising. There has been a 16% rise in the average number of households served in 2017.

Total Bags Distributed in 2017 = 16,381 (37% increase). $10,000+ matters. As an independent fully volunteer-run organization, every chance to raise significant amounts of money matters. Expand our community. Develop new friendships and deepen your own commitment to this effort to respond to food insecurity in our city.

How can you help?

  • By joining the team!
  • By volunteering to help with the ride.
  • By donating to NFP team members!

How do you sign up?

Sign up by contacting Lisa Tieszen at latieszen@gmail.com or 617-875-9047.

March 24th Newton Family Conference Postponement

Dear NPS Community,

On Monday night at the School Committee meeting, I shared with the community that the district is postponing the Family Conference scheduled for Saturday, March 24th. A new date has not yet been set, but we aim to reschedule the event in Fall 2018.

We are disappointed to postpone the conference as it has been such a valuable experience for participants in previous years. However, there are March for Our Lives events in Boston and across the country now occurring that afternoon and some of our facilitators and participants would like to attend. In order to have a successful conference, it is essential that we have the right facilitators there to share information and guide the conversations.

The Newton Family Conference is one way in which the Newton Public School District is seeking to create culturally responsive school communities. While the conference is postponed for now, our work with faculty and staff around Courageous Conversations on Race will continue, as laid out in our six-year plan. Families Organizing for Racial Justice (FORJ) will also continue to support parent/family groups as they seek to explore issues of race in their individual schools.

We look forward to continuing this work through the end of the year and hope that we will see you next fall at the Family Conference.

Sincerely,
David Fleishman

Donor Will Match $25,000 for Calculus Project in March!

The Calculus Project at Newton’s middle and high schools is closing the achievement gap in higher-level mathematics. Newton Schools Foundation is honored for the third consecutive year to have a very generous donor who will match up to $25,000 in contributions from the community to the Calculus Project during the month of March.

The Calculus Project has been transformational for Newton students. Since the program’s 2013 launch, enrollment growth in higher-level mathematics among traditionally underrepresented student groups has been significant:
• Hispanic student enrollment has increased 70 percent.
• African-American student enrollment has tripled.
• Low-income student enrollment has increased nine-fold!

Additionally, the enrollment rate of Calculus Project 9th graders in honors math exceeds that of total Newton Public Schools 9th graders, and is nearly twice the rate of 9th graders who were eligible for The Calculus Project but did not participate.

Here’s how the program works: Students selected to participate in the Calculus Project attend intensive small-group summer classes to preview upcoming curriculum, boost their math skills, foster attitudes that support academic risk-taking and perseverance, and cultivate relationships among peers in the program.

The 2018 summer program includes instruction in Computer Science, field trips to STEM-related companies, and college campus visits for rising 11th graders with a focus on STEM majors and careers, During the school year, students receive mentoring and after-school academic support. The program also uses lessons and activities designed to improve self-perceptions about academic accomplishment. Currently serving 138 students, the Calculus Project will reach full scale next year with five cohorts of students in grades 8-12.

At a cost of $1,000 per student for a full year of programming, the Calculus Project’s success depends on a public-private partnership between the Newton Public Schools, private foundations and corporate donors, and the Newton community through donations to Newton Schools Foundation. To learn more about this innovative program that’s making a meaningful impact for Newton students, or to make a donation, visit www.NewtonSchoolsFoundation.org.

Psychological First Aid training

Free Psychological First Aid training. Psychological First Aid has long been established as the gold standard of disaster responses. Created by a global team of experts, it is the only intervention endorsed by both the World Health Organization & the U.S. government for use in the aftermath of traumatic events.

The goal of this comprehensive two-day training is to prepare participants to deliver basic behavioral health disaster response skills following large-scale disasters or critical incidents, such as homicides, suicides, accidental deaths, & similarly distressing events.

This program is free & open to all. Nursing CEUs available. Registration is required. To sign up, go to region4bvolunteer.org and register as ‘guest’. For more information, view this flyer.

March 13th and 14th, 5:00 – 9:00 pm
345 Walnut Street, Newton

Newton Power Choice Program

The City of Newton is developing a plan for a new electricity program called Newton Power Choice, which will provide an opportunity for Newton to significantly increase the amount of renewable energy in the community’s electricity supply. Newton Power Choice is a form of group purchasing known as an electricity aggregation.

Newton Power Choice will provide:

  • Greener electricity
  • Price stability
  • Consumer protections
  • New electricity choices

As a program participant, you will have greater control over the environmental characteristics and price of your electricity supply. You will receive a standard amount of renewable electricity automatically, above the minimum amount required by state law, without choosing any of the options. (The standard amount is still to be determined.)

Or you can choose to:

  • Opt up to 100% renewable electricity.
  • Opt down to receive no additional renewable energy electricity above the state law requirement, but retain the program benefits of price stability and consumer protections.

More than 125 communities in Massachusetts are already engaged in electricity aggregation. But no other community has done what Newton is doing, which is to undertake an ambitious campaign to persuade electricity customers to opt up to 100% renewable electricity. Newton aims to have many more customers getting all of their electricity from New England renewable projects than any other community.

Participating and opting out: All Eversource Basic Service customers will be automatically enrolled. But participation is not required. Electricity customers may opt out of the program before being enrolled or at any time with no fee or penalty.

For more details on Newton Power Choice, see www.newtonpowerchoice.com.

Newton Area Flag Football League registration is open

Newton Area Flag Football League (NAFFL) is a new youth sports league offered during the spring season. All games are coached, refereed and scored. Registration guarantees each player 8 games, including playoffs. Divisions are available for kids ages 5 – 12. More information can be found on the website and on the attached flyer.

As Newton parents and community members, the founders believe NAFFL offers:

  • a safe environment and sport
  • respect for rules
  • fun while still being competitive
  • boosts confidence and perseverance
  • builds community
  • weekly exercise
  • an understanding of the importance of playing/working together as a team – good sportsmanship

The season begins May 6th at Daly Field on Nonantum Road. Games take less than one hour and are held on Sunday afternoons between 2:00 and 7:00 pm.