Teen Adviser Meeting @ Columbia tomorrow!

Teen Adviser Meeting  Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 3:30 – 5 p.m.

Earn service learning hours while being creative at the Library! Plan library programs, create displays, write blog posts and more.

TAG is the Teen Advisory Group at the Columbia Branch. TAG members help plan library programs, create displays, write blog posts and otherwise help the library be relevant and cool.

Service Learning hours can be earned for those who are ages 14+ and in high school.

For more information call Shadee at Columbia (206-386-1908) or Ask a Librarian!

Make Your Summer Count – Volunteer!

We are looking for reliable, creative, and motivated teens for a fun and intensive summer volunteer experience.  Volunteers will assist with library programs, help design and present a program for teens, and gain or improve the following skills: project management, money management, public speaking, instruction, publicity, and more.  Get a jump on those required volunteer hours and have fun at the same time @ your library!

Application Requirements:

• Must be 14 years of age and enrolled in high school
• Must attend volunteer orientation Mon, 6/23
• Must attend and present a program for teens on Fri, 8/1
• Must be able to: work well with others, be a self-starter, and be reliable

To Apply:

• Fill out an application and turn it in at your local Seattle Public Library by 6pm Sat, 5/31.
• Note on the front of the application that it is for the Summer of Volunteering at the Southwest Branch Library.

Contact Cheresse (206-684-7455)
at the Southwest Branch for more information.

Give Small? No. GiveBig! ;)

GIVEBIG ON MAY 6 AND WATCH YOUR GIFT GROW

GiveBIG is a one-day, online charitable giving event, inspiring people to give generously to the nonprofit organizations (like Seattle Public Library!!) that make our region a healthier and more vital place to live.

Each donation up to $5,000 per donor, per organization, made to the 1,600 nonprofit organizations profiled on The Seattle Foundation’s website between midnight and midnight Pacific Time on Tuesday, May 6, 2014, will receive a prorated portion of The Seattle Foundation’s matching funds, or “stretch pool.” The amount of the “stretch” depends on how much is raised in total donations on GiveBIG day.  As long as you have access to the web and a credit card, you can participate!

You can also narrow your search to organizations that are geared to, staffed by, or serving teens…  Nonprofit orgs 4 teens.  This list includes many organizations near ‘n dear to our library ❤ including (but not limited to):

• Teen Feed
• The Vera Project
• Teen Tix
• Richard Hugo House
• FamilyWorks
• The Talented Youth (NFFTY)
• Team Read
• Pongo Publishing

If you can GiveBig.  If you can’t then give small.  If you still can’t, check out this list of ways to give back to your community!

Be! Magazine – service opportunity

 If you’re interested in writing editorials and poems or producing artwork and illustrating comics for service hours, Be! Magazine is an excellent non-profit organization for you to consider.

The Pros & Cons of Summertime

Pro: You have time to relax!

After a long school-year, summer has just begun and you can finally have a bit of time for yourself.  It is around this time that you can begin planning exactly what it is that you want to do to relax.  Whether that means finding a spot to lay in the grass and read or catching a few extra hours of sleep—you’re now free to do as you wish when it comes to relaxing!

Con: Your sleep cycle can become irregular.

The majority of people that I know have the ability to stay up late if they try and often don’t even have to try.  During the summer, when one isn’t constantly thinking about school, this can means that one can be subject to staying up late on a regular basis.  Sometimes, one can be distracted by surfing the Internet, reading a book or simply losing track of time—either way, this can become a pattern that is hard to break.

Pro: You have time to explore and experience new interesting places.

Due to an increase in free time you’re able to go out an explore at your leisure.  You can go to a park and discover trails or go on a picnic and discover nature first-hand.  If you’re a tea or coffee person, you can search for new fun tea/coffee places.  If you’re an artsy person, why not take the time during the summer to plan out a few museum days?  With Seattle’s wide-range of awesome museums you’re bound to discover something interesting! (You can even get free tickets for many of them from the library!)

Teens in Public Service

This summer I participated in TIPS (Teens in Public Service) an organization that pairs teens with a non-profit in the greater Seattle area and then pays their wages to work there over the summer.  It was an amazing experience, and I learned so much from it!

Volunteering: My own personal gain

Does your high school have requirements on hour many volunteer hours you must do?  My high school sure does, the minimum is sixty hours which may seem like a lot.  It sounded like a lot of hours to recruit even in four years when I got started.  However, in short order I realized that it truly wasn’t much at all, and it wasn’t the number of hours that counted but the experiences and lessons I learned from my encounters.  After breaking it down I realized it was only slightly over the typical adult work week of 40 hours.  After, I grew an understanding for this the hours seemed very minuscule as I set out to find a volunteering opportunity.

I ended up settling at a 2-hour nursing home.  Admittedly, the idea didn’t come to be organically.  My great-grandmother is a resident at this very place and my mother thought it would be good for me to gain some elderly persons experience.  I was not opposed to this idea yet at first I wasn’t excited.  It took me a few weeks to get my footing and learn the lay-out of the place.  However, very soon I was interacting with the various personalities of the residents.  Disproving any prior ideas I may have had about the elderly, I realized just how vibrant and lively some of their personalities could be.  That’s not to say I never ran into challenges because like everyone else the elderly have feelings and hard days too and I had to learn preferences of the residents (seating arrangements, which activities they enjoyed, room numbers, etc.) or I’d surely be called out by some of the more vocal residents.

Volunteering with Teen Link: Phone Worker Training Today!

Are you interested in helping your peers? Need service learning hours for school and want to have fun while doing it? Not sure where or how to start volunteering or have been looking for a more meaningful way to do the time?

Look no further – Teen Link is for you!!

First off, what is Teen Link? Teen Link is a phone help line for empowering teens – open every night 6-10pm.  It offers support, understanding, resources, help, or just a friendly ear to struggling teens.  The cool thing about it is you talk to someone who gets it: another teen, just like you.  Someone who might have gone through something you have, or had a friend who has, or a family member.  Someone who gets trained to be a good listener, who volunteers their time to help improve teens’ lives, with no judgment.  It’s confidential and anonymous, and for everyone: problems big or small.  Talk about anything, from abuse, fears, self harm, suicidal thoughts and depression, addiction, and peer/parent/media pressures to day-to-day stress,  loneliness and isolation, insecurities, embarrassing stuff, home life, school problems or a friend problem, just to name a few subjects we get calls about!  I’m a volunteer, and I love it.  It’s volunteering with a bunch of other teenagers from all around Seattle, hanging out, and talking about teen issues and all that.  And going to service fairs with the Teen Link booth, to tell people about what we do. 

Volunteering: Why volunteer as a high school student?

Before school got out for the summer I talked to several of my upperclassman friends who stressed the importance of volunteering. I, myself, have always been very interested in working and devoting my time to others so I loved the idea of volunteering. However, I soon talked to my same-year friends who were a bit less zealous and understandably so when I think about it. I mean, in past years I spent my summers hanging out with friends, reading various books and just living up the sun (what little we got in Seattle). My various friends’ discontent about volunteering probed me to ask around and I found out that very few of my friends planned to get their hours done with or even remotely started this year.

Spread This Secret: Teen Link

I’m going to tell you a teenager secret: EVERYONE has been ‘there’.  A time when they hated school, or lunch or a 2nd period or bully.  Cried in a bathroom, felt lonely, felt peer pressured.  Wanted to fit in, tried to fit in, held back their voice, had one of those awful crippling embarrassing moments.  Lost a friend, had a bad friend, spread rumors.  Felt stressed, boxed in, or hopeless.  Have you ever been ‘there’?  It’s impossible to tell, but trust me when I tell you, even the most confident boy or girl has insecurities, fears.  Even that always happy kid can feel low and sad some days.  He just doesn’t show it.  You are not alone, with any feeling or situation, there is someone else, even someone you wouldn’t talk to about it who is feeling that too.