Hello Changemakers - from all of us here at United Way Youth Venture (UWYV), Changemaking and Portrait of a Graduate (POG). 

It was a busy month filled with Venture Team panels, including 10 launches at McKay Arts Academy! In addition, teams launched at Murdock Middle School, Oakmont Regional High School and Crocker Elementary School!

We were able to gift all Fitchburg elementary schools with multiple board games for every classroom. And all schools hosted a year-end Game Day! 

As always, we are grateful for your continued support. 

~the United Way Youth Venture Team!



Crocker Kindness Challenge

The students at Crocker Elementary School wanted to spread kindness around their school so their idea was to create Kindness Jars and anyone caught being kind three times would have their name entered into a drawing for a prize!

McKay Arts Academy

TEN United Way Youth Venture Teams recently launched from McKay Arts Academy! All six-grade students had the opportunity to participate in Youth Venture. There were ten different Venture project ideas. One team will host a "McKay's Got Talent" show to raise money to donate to Our Father's Table in Fitchburg. Another will raise money for Supportive Gamers by hosting a Game Night. One other project idea was for this team to plant trees around the school and city. There was no shortage of spirit and ambition for these McKay students! Well done!

Oakmont Regional High School

Students at Oakmont created their Venture around something they have already been doing, working at beautifying the communities of Ashburnham and Westminster. They like to plant flowers, pick up trash, and paint when they find something that could be improved. They recently planted geraniums at Crocker Pond in Westminster. Their Team, BAWC (Beautifying Ashburnham Westminster Communities) presented their plans at a community panel and were approved to launch as an official United Way Youth Venture Team. Congratulations!

Murdock Middle School

The Murdock Middle Youth Changemakers also launched this month and were awarded $350 from the panelists at their community panel. Their idea is to create a peer leader group that helps students to feel included, to offer peer mediation, and to teach them to voice their opinions in appropriate ways. They will be selling "No Place for Hate" bracelets to raise money, and host "No Place for Hate" activities each month. Congratulations to these Youth Changemakers. 

The United Way Youth Venture team had fun donating and delivering games to all of the elementary schools in Fitchburg. As part of the Healthy Minds Event grant from Reliant Foundation we were able to gift each school with multiple board games per classroom.