HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-09-09-YC-min Town of Lexington
Lexington Youth Commission
Minutes of Meeting Held on Thursday, September 9, 2021
A meeting of the Lexington Youth Commission was held on Thursday, September 9, 2021. The
meeting began at 5:30PM at Lexington High School, Commons II, 251 Waltham St, Lexington,MA
02421.
Adult Members Present.Deb Hankins, Chair, Shannon DeGuglielmo, Kristina Hankins
Student Members Present.Madelyn Lucente, Regina Tashjian,Matthew Favazzo, Ella Lucente,
Camelia Atassi, Isabella Barrett,Avery Cutler, Nicholas Keim,Ipek Kendreiogli, Carolyn Lane, Sandy
Raman, Emily Rosenthal, Elena Sabin, Marilyn Swinger, Skylar Spencer, Ella Thomas,Ava Tamaro,
Anna Kefalas, Maya Benet,Hannah Kieval,Taneem Ghadiah, Nina Arnold,Amelia Shair, Charles
Swan,Julia Ava Dalal,John Kefalas, Isabella Barbesino
Excused Absences:Andrew Lawrence, Hobie Swan,Marina Chen, Oliver Dicerbo, Sophia Lupone
1. Flamingo Flocking Follow up
o Recap of Discussion:
Improvement areas were that if we decide to do this fundraiser again,we should try to plan, and
organize the sign up in a way that doesn't leave certain people doing way more work than others.
This was something that was agreed upon by many other members.Another suggestion was that to
limit the amount of travel one group has to do at a time,we could try to organize it in a way that
makes it so that the houses that one group delivers to will all be in the same school district(based
off of Clarke and Diamond).To easily organize this, we could add a question to the form saying what
school district the person they are flocking is in. Island Clean-Up
o Recap of Discussion:
We talked about how we were going to meet at the island,but we were unable to because of the
weather. Due to COVID, and the overgrown weeds, and roots (we have not cleaned the island since
October 2019),a private donor has offered to have a company come in this fall to weed, remove
roots, and edge. We will be back there in the Spring planting, cleaning and sprucing up the area.
2. Halloween Balloon Hanging for Lexington Merchants/Veterans Day Parade
o Recap of Discussion:
Halloween Balloon Hanging for Lexington Merchants is tentatively scheduled for Friday,
October 29th,between 11:35 am- 1:00 pm.
Maddie Lucente began this part of the meeting by recapping how we have done the balloon hanging
in the past, and explaining how we put the balloons at the storefront of vendors who participate in
the Lexington Center trick or treating. The Lexington Board of Health will make a decision prior to
this date..
Veterans Day Parade and Services are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, November 11th.
The Lexington Board of Health will make a decision prior to this date.
Then while speaking about Veterans Day, Deb mentioned a potential Veterans fundraiser that will be
further discussed.
Decisions Made/Votes Taken: with a show of hands everyone said they were interested in
participating in the potential Veterans fundraiser. Bedford Green Apartments - a low rent residence
for formerly homeless, or nearly homeless Veterans. This fundraiser asks participants to bring a
household item ( dishwashing liquid, paper towel, etc , etc, must be new) We contacted them,
and they gave us a "Wish list". They also could use cash for activities organized by the staff.
3. Food Pantry-2000 Pound Challenge
o Recap of Discussion:
We decided we will again this year continue our 2000 Pound Challenge for the Lexington Food
Pantry Things we learned from last year is,we need more people and to set up stations for the day
of drop off at C&W,These station would include expiration date verification,sorting of food by
category, items,etc., and bagging and boxing food for easier delivery to the food pantry. Emily then
said that she was doing a food drive with her temple,and that she went to Trader Joes saying she
was participating in a food drive and they gave her around 300 bags for free.
o Decisions Made/Votes Taken: It was decided that we will all get 10 bags at our next
meeting and that we should get the filled bags to C&W by November 6th
Tom's Time:
1. Registration for Fall 2021 is open, people can view the brochure here
2. Community Center is back open to Monday-Friday 8e0 am®9v0 m and Saturday
9v 0am® v 0 m. The current mask rule is that you have to wear one inside the building.
3e We will have use of an outdoor Eft movie screen and a projector to be used under the
tent until November 1St° We wouldn't be able to do anything big such as the movie night you
all wanted to plan but I wanted to present the offer to you and see if LYC as a group wanted
to have a movie night at the LCC back parking lot as a fun get together to start off the new
school year? The tent could hold around 40 people with just chairs, you could use it as a
way to attract more members?You could plan a couple nights to make it more focused on
who to invite? We also have a popcorn machine that could be used for added fun and a
great sound system so the movie will be loud enough. Just wanted to present this to you all
and see where your creative minds take it!
4. 1 am planning on putting together a teen advisory group at the Community Center and I
would love everyone's input on what they think would make a teen room appealing at the
Community Center?
0 Would having a set reserved time work best? (Fridays from 6-9pm)
o What items would be included? (Computers, printers, gaming systems, board
games, bean bag chairs, desks...etc)
o Would it be strange to have certain teens be "in-charge" of the nights and have
them plan activities each week?
o What part of the Community Center would work best for you all?
New gear:
Maddie Lucente began to talk about how we might be getting new sweatshirts that are more
modern,and look more like a college sweatshirt. Everyone really liked the design that Andrew made
after raising hands. Shannon and Kristina are looking into options for sweatshirts and tee shirts.
They will have more information for our next meeting.
The next meeting will be held at 7:00 pm on Thursday, October 14, 2021 in Commons 11 at
Lexington High School.
Respectfully submitted,
Ella J. Lucente
LYC Secretary