PENNS VALLEY— The Penns Valley Youth Center, a nonprofit which aims to “provide students and families in the community with hope, worth and friendship,” according to its website, will hold a fundraiser on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m. at the Old Greg School, 106 School St., Spring Mills.
The fundraiser will consist of a traditional Amish dinner. Nate Stupar, a State College native who played for Penn State before playing for the National Football League for the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants, among other teams, will be the guest speaker at the fundraiser. A performance by the PVYC youth choir will also occur.
The Penns Valley Youth Center is an after-school program open for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It serves over 200 students and provides homework assistance, counseling and a food pantry.
“Our mission is to provide a safe place where students can develop friendships, discover and deepen their self-worth and increase their hope for a bright future,” Mark Fisher, PVYC executive director, said in a press release.
According to the press release, every Wednesday, the food pantry provides over 40 families with meals through the Food Centre.
“Penns Valley Youth Center is serving one of the 238 rural school districts in Pennsylvania. We face a dilemma like most of the other districts in our state, if not the rural school districts across the entire United States. Funding is very difficult to get by way of grants from foundations and corporations due to the fact that almost all of those funders focus on the urban areas because they are more populous and are made up with the majority of minority students,” Fisher explained in the release.
“Our rural districts are mostly white with far less students. However, rural area students also share a lot of the same mental, emotional and physical needs. There are over 374,000 youth attending rural schools in Pennsylvania.”
The PVYC welcomes all children to their program and works hard toward giving them everything they may need to succeed. Whether that be helping with homework or class work, giving them the space to make new friendships and giving them a space to practice or allowing them to play sports.
“Penns Valley Youth Center is growing. Unfortunately, it becomes harder and harder to raise funds from outside of the area as they grow,” Fisher noted in the release. “Penns Valley has a population of 12,579 people and many of those people have been supporting the youth center for 14 years and more, however the PVYC needs more support.”
For more information on the PVYC and to get involved, visit pennsvalleyyouthcenter.com.
