North Brookfield Youth Center
sponsors after-school programs, road race/walk

By Angela L. Zajac
Turley Publications Correspondent

NORTH BROOKFIELD - This upcoming school year, the Youth Center will be providing after-school programs for all age levels with an emphasis on Science, the area of the Massachusetts Assessment System (MCAS) that the district has determined to be the weakest area of students’ educational skills.
The Youth Center, located in the parsonage of the Episcopal Church, is under the direction of Executive Director Marty Toomey, who works very closely with the students’ teachers.
The board of directors raised over $10,000 this year to support free after school and summer programs including the 4-week Camp Smile, which will be held next month at the First Congregational Church. Unfortunately, this program is already completely full except for the sixth-grade level.
Toomey explained “At the junior high and high school levels, we put a real emphasis on teen leadership and mentoring. At Camp Smile, grades 7-12 will be planning and facilitating the camp for the younger students, and after school, the older kids spend time writing and performing plays about issues teens might be facing.”
Last Saturday morning, the Youth Center sponsored their fourth annual 5K/10K road race/walk and had a total of 66 people come out to raise funds for the non-profit grant based organization.
"Thank you very much to all the participants and community sponsors including Hannaford Supermarket, North Brookfield Savings Bank, Brookfield Lions Club, Mason's Hayden Lodge AF & AM who cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone, Brookfield Rotary Club, Leicester Triple Drive-In and Yankee Timing for professionally timing the race," Toomey emphasized.
The winners of the 10K race were: Barbara McManus 40m 24s and Mark LeBlanc 33m 25s, and the 5K race: Chelsea Caron 25m 8s and 16 year-old Sean Murray 20m 54s.
Toomey added, "The success of the Youth Center shows us that the parents of North Brookfield really want wholesome and quality programs for their children. There is a tremendous amount of town and community support."