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Town of Milford - COVID-19 Updates
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The Town of Milford will be providing updates on the COVID 19 pandemic on the Town website here. The Town has included video announcements (in English, Portuguese and Spanish) from the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Fire Chief, Police Chief, Director of Public Health and Town Administrator. The Town will also be updating the public every Monday at Selectmen meetings.
For the Town Clerk's June newsletter, click here.
FYI: Effective at 5 pm on March 13 and until further notice, the following public buildings in Milford will be closed to the public:
* Town Hall
* Milford Youth Center
* Senior Center
* Memorial Hall
* Animal Control
* Library
Employees in these buildings will be working normal hours. Please conduct your business with these government employees via phone or email; check for offices' contact information at Town of Milford, MA. Also check out up-to-date information at Milford TV (information also available in Spanish and Portuguese). As the Town receives updated information about prevention and protection measures, it will use the Town of Milford website and Reverse-911 for additional announcements.
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Dear MYC families and community partners. We wanted to communicate with you all that we miss you all and are saddened that we cannot share our beautiful building and programs with you at this time. However, we are trying to make the best of it! Follow our social media pages and look at our website for virtual programs every day! To all our seniors, class of 2020, congratulations on graduating and transitioning to your next chapter during this difficult time! To all other students finishing up the school year virtually, you are almost there! Keep up the great work. To show our support, we dropped of graduation bears to all seniors who attend our after school program, who volunteered and/or were current staff! In addition, here are some more updates as to what we have accomplished this past month to stay positive and do our part in the community!
Mask Making: In addition to the over 820 mask kits already distributed to the Milford community, we have made another 200 mask kits for individuals and the Milford Food Service Program to distribute, bringing our total to OVER 1,000 MASK KITS!
If you would like to donate materials please connect with us 508-473-1756 or email
here
! You can also purchase "MYC" face coverings through our online store on SquadLocker here. A portion of any MYC purchase is donated back to us!
Food/Toiletry/Pet Food Distribution: With the continued support and generosity of Amazon and Ariea Bryan, we have been able to continue to drop off donations to the Milford High School and the Milford Daily Bread Food Pantry, along with weekly care packages for some of our senior volunteers.
 Amazon Birthday Gift Distribution: During the school year, we were able to let kids of our after school program pick a prize from donated toys, games and books accumulated from our Amazon donation deliveries. We felt that kids would like an extra surprise on their birthdays while they are home during this difficult time, so with the help of Milford Police Department, the Special Ops Unit and the Milford Highway Department, we have continued Birthday gift deliveries to the kids of our program! We began this in late April and have delivered gifts to over 50 youth and additional gifts to their siblings so far and plan to continue throughout the month of June!
Message Requests for Seniors, Medical Staff and First Responders: Over the last month, we have reached out to the community to help us collect messages to our senior population with messages of "we are thinking about you" and thank you messages to our local medical staff and first responders. We have collected over 100 for each group so far! If you would like to participate, y
ou can send a picture of yourself with a message or the message by itself to
milfordyouthcenter@comcast.net
Virtual
Trainings:
We are pursuing as much professional development opportunities right now as possible to help us get though this difficult time as an organization. Some training's include, the Foundation for MetroWest's "Fundraising in Challenging Times: Building Your Contingency Plans", Philanthropy Massachusetts's " Let's Get Digital: Leveraging Social Media for Fundraising" and the National Recreation and Park Association' "Leadership Development Meeting (Let's Reopen)."
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Support the MYC When You Pick Up Beer To-Go From Our Local Brewery!
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We are so excited to announce that beginning this Friday June 5th, $1 of every purchase of a 32 oz squealer, "We Need You(th)" will be donated to the Milford Youth Center! This special beer was brewed to raise funds for the MYC! Our amazing community partner, CraftRoots, reached out to help the Center during this difficult time and we are so appreciative. With no rental programs and the postponed 10th Annual St. Pat's Fundraiser, our largest event of the year, Maureen and Robin, came up with this awesome idea to help support our program! Stop by CraftRoots for beer to-go or place your order online at their website for safe, contactless curbside pickup!
Send us photos of you picking up your squealer so we can make sure we can thank you! Send them to our email here
milfordyouthcenter@comcast.net or post them on social media and tag CraftRoots and the Center! Thank you CraftRoots! We hope to set a new date soon for our fundraiser, when it is safe to do so!
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MYC Virtual Programs: June 2020
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Happy June everyone! Thanks to the outreach of support from our volunteers, staff, Milford TV and our other community members we have been able to continue to offer virtual programs on our
Facebook page, the new Milford TV app for your phone and/or on the Milford TV local access channel (Comcast (channel 8) or Verizon (channel 38) if you live in Milford! You now can participate in some of our short virtual tutorials, crafts, activity ideas and other programs right from home. Programs/times may be subject to change based on volunteer availability. All programs will be posted directly to our
Facebook page, website and Milford TV's website/ phone app so you can watch them whenever you have time! You can also check out any previous programming
here! There are over 60 programs available!
 This month we will continue with Martial Arts training with Anthony Miele on Mondays at 10:00 a.m. STEAM with Kate Poitras on Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. Wednesdays we will have Nutrition at 10:00 a.m. with our Assistant Director Katie Covell and a virtual zoom "Around the World" Basketball program with a former staff member and MHS/Worcester State Basketball player, Aaron Anniballi at 5:30 p.m. We will also continue with Kid's Play at 8:00 a.m. for kids ages (0-5) on Thursdays and Arts & Crafts at 10:00 a.m. with Joanna Abrantes also on Thursdays. Fridays we will offer Fit Friday at 10:00 a.m. with our Assistant Director Katie Covell and Fishing at 12:00 p.m. with the Director of Milford TV, Liz Harkins and her husband Nick Harkins! That's not all! Keep an eye out for some special drop- in programs like Baking with our Director Jen on June 1st at 12:00 p.m. and our Tik Tok Tuesday on the last day of our typical programming schedule, June 16th!
Click our
calendar to see the dates and times! Finally, stay tuned for a Special Virtual Community Telethon that we will be taking part in with Milford TV, tentatively scheduled for
Friday, July 10th! More information will be available soon!
Thank you again to all of our current volunteers Anthony Miele, Kate Poitras, Aaron Anniballi, Liz Harkins, and Nick Harkins! We would like to thank last month's volunteers including, Jerry's Bait and Tackle in Milford for providing 4 weeks of programming, Kenny Duong, Kallie Tavano, Carly and Ryker Fauth, Sargent Carlos Sousa here with Officer Pat Motuzas and Chris LeBlanc of Athletic  Based Training! We would also like to thank the
32 volunteers/ supporters of the 10 U, 1 2U, and 16U Team and the
Milford Girls Softball League
who showed their support for us last month, by participating in a fun Tik Tok softball toss across town! Thank you Maddy B, Kelley R, Angelina B, Camile B,Grace B, Mike B, Paul B, Samantha B, Maddie B, Gianna C, Maya D, Maeve D, Katie F, Maddie H, Brianna H, Ella J, Lynsay K, Katelyn K, Meghan K, Sarah L, Olivia L, Talia L, Avery M, Brian M, Amelia M, Victoria P, Gianna S, April S, Lucia T, Kelly W, Lauren W, and Maeve W! You can check out the Softball TikTok video and a special TikTok from MYC staff, here! We appreciate everyones efforts to continue our virtual programming!
You can also still help the Milford Youth Center by creating virtual programs of skills, hobbies or activities that you would like to share with everyone! You might even be featured on Milford TV! If interested, please email our Program Coordinator at
here.
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Thank You
United Way of Tri-County
and Project Toy Box!
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Katie and Jen drove to Framingham on May 7th to collect toys that were generously donated by the United Way of Tri-County's Project Toy Box campaign. The project is possible due to the longstanding partnership of the United Way of Tri-County with Good360 and the Milford Youth Center, to provide toys to children from low-income families during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
 "We're delighted to be able to partner with the Milford Youth Center to support families in need and to give children something they can smile about," said United Way of Tri-County President & CEO Paul Mina." Staff at the United Way are working hard to support area families with food and other basic needs. When these toys were offered we knew we had to step up and bring kids from families struggling financially some fun," Mina concludes.
We would like to thank the United Way employees who helped us load the truck, Mike Walsh and Imperial Cars for lending us a box truck and our Board Member Sandy Caproni and members of the Special Ops Unit who helped us unload all the toys!
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Thank You
Milford Regional Medical Center!
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We are so excited to share our "Thank You" Board that we dropped off at Milford Regional Medical Center in May! To show our appreciation for all the hard-working nurses, doctors and staff, we asked our After School members and the community to help us with thank you notes, as part of both International Nurse Day and Nurse Week! We could not have received as many as we did without the help of Miss Fahey and Team 8 - Grade 5 at Woodland Elementary School! Miss Fahey reached out to us when she saw what we were doing and immediately went into action and made it part of their weekly writing assignment! We added all the thank yous collected and made this board that we dropped off with over 100 Milford Youth Center candles! We cannot thank these individuals enough for their passion to help others and for their drive to get us all through this unprecedented time. Stay safe everyone! For our Facebook photo album of the messages collected, click here.
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MYC Thanks Community for Donations:
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The Youth Center would like to extend a very appreciative thank you to the following list who donated items and/or their time this month to the Center:
- Ray Auger for inviting us to participate in the fundraiser "Cooking for Kids" which raised $1,230 for the Milford Summer Food Service Program;
- Ariea Bryan & Amazon for multiple deliveries of misc. pet food, non-perishables, toys, games, clothing and goods;
- Milford TV for sharing our virtual programming and training our Program Coordinator, Kathleen, to do some of our own editing of videos;
- Milford Police & Special Ops Team for assisting in our birthday gift deliveries to the kids;
- Milford Highway Department for assisting in our birthday gift deliveries to the kids and helping bring deliveries into the building;
- Melanie Burns & Family for the generous monetary donation;
- Maggie McIsaac for the donations of games, toys and a bike helmet;
- Susan Manna for donating an electric guitar, amp, and music stand;
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Elie Boutros & New York Regional Census Center
for donating census materials to hand out to the community;
- Joanne Dillon for the donation of fabric to make more mask kits;
- Joan Ward for donating scrap book materials and misc. items;
- Paula Kellett for the generous monetary donation;
- Beth Fraunfelter & Family for the generous monetary donation;
- Rebecca Charczanko & Family for the generous monetary donation;
- Miss Fahey & Team 8 Grade 5 at Woodland Elementary for all the kind notes to thank our Milford Regional Medical Staff for all their hard work;
- Continued thank you to all volunteers submitting daily virtual programming for our kids!
The Youth Center relies on donations to help sustain our programs! Please contact the Center if you would like to donate or click here.
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Volunteer Spotlight: Kate Poitras!
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We are always looking for ways to thank our community and especially our volunteers. This month we would like to recognize the efforts of Kate Poitras!
Kate is the mother of one of our other dedicated After-School volunteers Maddy Poitras! Kate originally reached out to our Program Coordinator, Kathleen Irwin towards the end of February to collaborate with our existing STEAM volunteer, Kim Wach. As we were right in the beginning stages of our collaboration, we were struck with the reality of closing our doors to the public, but right when we needed support most Kate
was willing to continue our STEAM program virtually, becoming one of our first virtual programs. To date Kate has already created 7 weeks of STEAM virtual programming for the Milford Youth Center and plans to continue to the end of what would have been our last day of school, June 16th. Thank you so much for your continued support through this precarious time!
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MYC Summer Camp & Rentals Update
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 Unfortunately, due to the current situation, we are unable to make a decision yet if we will be able to conduct our normal 6-week camp starting July 6 to August 14th for youth, ages 8-14. We hope to share more information about not only the decision on summer camp from the town but also if we will be allowed to host small rental groups, by mid-June. We would like to thank you all for your patience and understanding and hope to share more information soon!
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Emergency Food for Milford
and Surrounding Community
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Due to the the amazing work and commitment from the Hockomock YMCA, Milford Public Schools Food Service team and the Milford Area Humanitarian Coalition, there is breakfast and lunch being served, Monday through Friday as a "grab and go" style!
This is for the whole community, not just Milford students. This is being offered daily at Memorial Elementary School, located at 12 Walnut Street in Milford. Breakfast will be served from 8 AM to 10 AM and lunch served 11 AM to 1 PM. No sign up or paperwork is required! If you have any questions, please contact Marykateb@hockymca.org
- For the flier, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, click here.
- For updates about emergency meals through the efforts to the Hockomock Area YMCA, click here.
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Teachers Driving Academy (TDA) Update!
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The Teacher's Driving Academy (TDA) would like to share the following update: The RMV has allowed for web-based classroom instruction up until the end of August, during this time of the COVID-19 crisis. Many schools throughout the state may not be ready to support the web-based option at this time but here at TDA, we are ready to GO! We are offering the classroom instruction via web-cam for 5 weeks in a row. The only thing at this point that the RMV will not allow online is the FINAL EXAM. They are stating that this has to be done in person. We are CONFIDENT that this will change as this policy was just instituted a few days ago. The fee is only $119 and includes fee to RMV for your driver's education certificate. Click here to register for web-based virtual classroom. If you were already enrolled in for the standard classroom session, you can now switch to a virtual web-based format by clicking here.
Important Info:
- Virtual Web Based classes are Monday thru Friday, 10am-4pm
- On Tuesday of each week at 5pm, there will be a web-based parent class
- For all information visit the website here or email here.
The Milford Youth Center is pleased to partner with Teachers Driving Academy, who offers students a great program, at a reasonable price! We are very grateful for this partnership and the very appreciative of the estimated annual donation of over $25,000 each year!
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2020 Census: Easy, Safe and Important!
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 The results of the 2020 Census will help determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding flow into communities every year for the next decade. That funding shapes many different aspects of every community, no matter the size, no matter the location.
Think of your morning commute: Census results influence highway planning and construction, as well as grants for buses, subways, and other public transit systems.
Or think of your local schools: Census results help determine how money is allocated for the Head Start program and for grants that support teachers and special education.
The list goes on, including programs to support rural areas, to restore
wildlife, to prevent child abuse, to prepare for wildfires, and to provide housing assistance for older adults. Curious about what other programs are impacted by census data? Download this report to see a full list.
The self-response rate percentage for the town of Milford is at at 66.9%, but the census tract for Milford downtown area is at 45.4%. The non-response follow up phase" sending census takers to visit addresses of those who didn't respond on their own" will start August, 11 - October 31! You can check the percentage changes on a daily basis on this link here. For more information on the Census, click here. For a PowerPoint on info on the Census, click here.
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Milford Youth Center
Newsletter
June 2020
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