bluelyon note: This came as a response to my post below. I am proud to post it.
I began to learn more about Silver Springs about 5 years ago through my job, which takes me there several times a month to work on community projects with residents. What I found was an area so beautiful that I often stop to take photos on my way to meetings and events, and I take my child there on our own little field trips to Ft. Churchill and Buckland Station (if you’ve never seen Buckland Station in the Fall, you’re missing something).
I don’t know where you can find less jaded, more open children and teens in this entire country. During their lunch period at the high school, the students are happy to play chess and ping pong. And I’ve not seen such thirst for Arts experiences in young people before: I wish you could have watched the rapt attention of the local high school students when Nevada Opera’s Next Generation program came out to explain the history of opera, and then the teens’ enthusiasm on their subsequent trip to see a weekend production of Barber of Seville in Reno. Or stop by the schools now and see what the high school students are doing to beautify their commons area with a new mural they’ve designed, or come to a performance by the new teen Glee Club, or accompany them on one of their field trips to Reno to see performances like the steam punk version of A Christmas Carol by Nevada Shakespeare Company.
Silver Springs does have a Boys and Girls Program, and although it is not in its own building, which would be massively expensive to build and maintain, it exists within the school buildings in Silver Springs and is extremely popular. In addition, the Silver Springs nonprofit Silver Stage Youth Organization acquired nearly $200,000 through Senator Reid’s office with much hard work and planning, and they’re now working with the school system to use those funds to renovate an area of the school as a teen and community activities center, which will have the added benefit of a new broadband community technology center the school is funding (high speed computers, long distance learning set up).
The youth of Silver Springs are intensely involved in volunteer service to their community, and have been much longer than the 5 years I’ve been visiting. If you haven’t heard about their S Club (a teen Soroptimist club for both boys and girls), stop by the high school and say hello to their adult supervisor, Peggy Edwards, and prepare to sit awhile because it’s going to take her ½ an hour just to list the community projects they’ve completed this school year. The Stand Tall team is also very active in community and school campaigns on healthy living, good nutrition, prevention of tobacco, alcohol and other drug use, and leads a number of service learning projects in Silver Springs each year.
Adults in Silver Springs may often have less time than adults in other communities I visit because their commute time to work is often long, but there are a number of very active adult groups there, especially the Silver Stage Task Force, which is hosting its annual free community wellness fair again this year (for the last several years, hundreds of locals are immunized and get other free health services during this weekend fair).
Besides their annual health fair, community garden, and holiday toy drive, the task force has been hosting lunches that serve as opportunities for local veterans and families with military members to meet one another, share their common experiences, and connect to support groups like Blue Star Moms and to employment, housing, medical, and other services. These lunches are not political in nature, but a response to the lack of veterans and military family services and opportunities to gather that the task force saw in this community with a very high percentage of military families and veterans that are, however, quite distant from veterans and military family services and support groups. In fact, this year the Task Force will be incorporating a large section of military family and veterans services into their May 7 Wellness Fair at the high school from 10am-2pm (just to clarify, “military family support” means services that help spouses, parents and children with the issues involved in having a family member who is deployed, and/or becomes injured or killed during deployment).
Silver Springs does need more, not less, and here’s what anyone who wants to help can do: come to the Silver Stage Task Force meetings on the last Wednesday of each month at 4pm at the Community Center and we’ll connect you to any of the projects above that you’d like to get involved in (including the newly developing garden at the Silver Springs Elementary School which will continue through the summer). The youth here need adults with time and skills and/or connections to resources who can bring additional opportunities to them through the Boys and Girls Clubs, the library, S Club, Stand Tall, 4-H, Glee Club, the schools, etc.
We know through surveys and day-long focus groups over the last several years that the kids want more 4-H Clubs, but they need adult leaders; they want field trips to Arts experiences, but they need transportation; they want opportunities to paint and dance and act, but they need visiting artists to donate their skills; they want yoga and cooking classes, but need volunteer instructors; they need improved bike paths (and bicycles!) but need some adult guidance and someone to teach them bike repair; they want mentors to help guide them through the maze of post-high school educational opportunities, etc.
If you have time, skills, talents, or connections to resources, please share them with Silver Springs youths. Call me anytime, day or night, and I’ll make sure you get connected to whomever is most enthused about your passion, whether its arts, science, fitness, cooking, yoga, theatre, dance or career/workforce development…
Sincerely,
Quest Lakes
Healthy Communities Coalition task force coordinator
(775) 287-7598
www.facebook.com/healthycommunitiescoalition
I live in a 
