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Hello Hello Dance Party Seekers!

Here’s the skinny from the staff at RSYP:

-6 to 10 wonderful local adult youth development leaders will be supervising the shindig and participating in a few break dance showdowns themselves
-Parents and guardians are more than welcome to join us throughout the evening for a snack, or to bust a move
-Good old fashioned Dancin’ from 7pm to 11pm (see “Footloose” for more information)
-In our space at RSYP we will celebrate dance that is respectful, responsible, consensual, positive, expressive, creative, fun, fun, and even sweatier fun. If you don’t two-step in this fashion, you are not welcome in this space, partner. That’s how we roll.
-RSYP is an inclusive, safe, and substance free space. Come sober. Stay sober. Get high on the magic of dance. For realsies. That’s how we roll.
-There will be a police officer mozying about the space throughout the evening. Feel free to High-5 them, engage them in short meaningful conversations, and ask them what their favorite dance move is
-90 person maximum at the Drop-In Center so…
-We got a bouncer, a big one. Wicked big.
-We’re keeping the limit at 90 as that is our firecode maximum
-Get there early if you want to get in and dance dance dance, after 90 heads we’ll only let you in after someone leaves, club style
-There will be snacks. Be polite. Don’t stuff your face. Save some for the next young dance star. And thank you to Bizen, Big Y, Taft Farms, Windy Hill, the Co-Op, and Subway for the snacky snacks!

And of course, if there’s anyone out there with questions or concerns with regards to this big night of funk, PLEASE reach out to me here at the Drop-In Center on 60 Bridge Street, in beautiful (seriously, peep the leaves around this place!) GB. We hope to see you Friday night!

Take care- Paul that is tall
–
Paul M. McNeil, Drop-In Center Program Director
Railroad Street Youth Project
P.O. Box 698
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(413) 528-2475 ext. 903
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www.rsyp.org

Painting beauty under the railroad tracks

Reported by Torie Wells

Tuesday August 23, 2011

At the top of Castle Street, in the heart of Great Barrington, you can find beauty underneath the railroad tracks.

“It’s been this contagious art project,” said Paul McNeil, from the Railroad Street Youth Project.

“I like doing things that the public can see,” said Dan Slater, a graffiti artist.

“It’s for everyone,” said Laurel Zukowski, a mural artist.

For weeks now, Zukowski has been breathing life into a mural underneath the railroad tracks in Great Barrington.

Zukowskis work is intertwined with the work of local teens. It is a project through the Railroad Street Youth Project. The organization was started back in 1999 by a 19-year-old named Amanda Root.

“There were a bunch of youth that used to hang out in the railroad street area years ago and it was a hotbed of drug sales,” said McNeil. “So many people close to her were getting affected in horrible ways.”

Amanda wanted to give youth another option, empowering them to take part in the community.

“This is the heartbeat of the Railroad Street Youth Project it’s young people coming together talking about what they want to do that will mean something positive,” said McNeil.

“It feels good, we did a lot. Originally it just looked like a lot of graffiti. After we primed it with the white paint and got the color on it, it’s looking a lot better,” said Sergio Winston, a 14-year-old who volunteers for the project.

He says that if it weren’t for the project he’d likely be home for the summer. Instead he will go back to school, feeling accomplished.

“It’s something definitely to look back on, it’s a memory of the summer 2011,” he said.

Seventeen-year-old Dan Slater is thinking about going to school for graphic arts. But his first passion is graffiti, an art form that is growing. This project is giving him a canvas of his own and a platform to speak to his community.

“I want people to take away that graffiti isn’t just vandalism its also an art form,” said Slater.

Each moment you spend with the mural, you see something new. The ways it is affecting the community are layered too. On the surface, it is a gift to Great Barrington but, if you look closer, you can see it is a gift to each other and themselves.

“Everyone feels like the contributed so it’s theirs,” said Zukowski.

“Twenty years from now you can look back and say I remember this,” said Slater.

Railroad Street Youth Project to Get Upgrade

By Trevor Jones, Berkshire Eagle Staff, Posted: 08/26/2011 12:05:26 AM EDT

GREAT BARRINGTON — The Railroad Street Youth Project is getting help to upgrade its downtown facility from an unlikely source — a Denver-based kidney treatment company.

DaVita, which services 128,000 patients nationwide, is providing $50,000 to the youth empowerment group for upgrades to its facility on Bridge Street. The project is part of Tour DaVita, a 262-mile, three-day cycling and outreach program intended to raise funds for kidney disease awareness and prevention programs.

More than 120 DaVita employees, physician partners and patients will arrive in Great Barrington on Sept. 17. The group will begin the cycling the following day, helping out with volunteer efforts here and in New York before leaving for Connecticut on Sept. 19. for the remainder of their ride.

Vince Hancock, a DaVita spokesman, said Great Barrington was selected because it’s a small town.

“A lot of times we go into smaller communities because we want to make a lasting impact on the community,” said Hancock.

The Great Barrington visit will coincide with the unveiling of the revamped Railroad Street space.

Paul McNeil, program director for Railroad Street, said it will be a “complete facelift” that will include more computers, an Internet café, televisions and a conference room.

Hancock said the company picked this route for its access to dialysis facilities, its scenic and cycling-friendly nature, and because of health rates in the two states, according to Hancock.

Obese individuals are three times as likely to develop kidney failure, and in Massachusetts and Connecticut, more than 22 percent of the population is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And while a youth organization might not be the first group that comes to mind when thinking of kidney disease, Hancock said it’s important to explain the risk factors to them so they can avoid kidney problems later in life.

Funds will be donated to The Kidney TRUST, a nonprofit organization seeking to educate and raise awareness about kidney disease. For more information, go to TourDaVita.org

To reach Trevor Jones:
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or (413) 528-3660.