Youth Garden Plot Clean-Up

It's that time again- tis the season for garden clean-up! It's always so sad to pull out the plants we've worked so hard to take care of, but we'll be back next year! Keep an eye out for news of the new garden in March 2015- we hope to hold an interactive planning session around that time. 

Garden clean-up will take place this Saturday at 3pm. If you would like to join us, we would love to see you there! 

Disposing of, recycling and donating unwanted items

Wondering what to do with your old tires? Leftover paint from renos? Fabric scraps? The Martensville Community Access Centre has compiled a list of businesses, recycling centres and charities that will take those items off your hands. Before you take it to the dump, give us a call or email to find out if there may be a better option. 

A reminder that the City of Martensville is running two lane-pick-up days this month. The North Side is on September 15th and the South Side is on September 22nd.  See the city website for more information on what is acceptable to put out for pick up: Lane-Pick Up Info

Martensville World Cafe Summer 2014

The Martensville Community Access Centre hosted its first “World Café” meeting on Monday, August 25^th. A World Café is a gathering of community members to discuss concerns, ideas and actions. The turn-out was small, but enthusiastic. There was a definite interest in holding more meetings of this nature. One idea was to also do more specific, themed World Cafes about one topic at a time. This style of meeting would be open to the public and invitations would be sent out to those community members who have demonstrated an interest in the issue at hand.

Monday’s meeting was more of a general brainstorming session. Guided discussion began with thinking about what makes Martensville great as it is. There was strong praise for our family friendly atmosphere and beautiful green spaces. From there, individual concerns were listed. Each group then picked one topic they felt especially strongly about, and examined possible solutions.  The final group discussion focused on three main issues: boosting community spirit and involvement, bringing health services to Martensville, and altering current vendor opportunities to better serve our community and local artisans.

The citizens who spoke at this event were passionate and ready to take action, but they can’t do it alone. If there are any issues that you feel strongly about, please contact the Martensville Community Access Centre to let us know. From there, we hope to bring like-minded individuals together to form action groups to bring about the improvements we all hope to see. 

Martensville World Cafe on Monday, August 25th

Do you have an idea for something you would like to see happen in Martensville? You are invited to join us from 7-8:30pm on Monday, August 25^th, at the Civic Centre (room #10 and #11) for a World Café style meeting. We will be talking about things that matter to you in our rapidly changing community. It could be about health services or it could be about getting better public transportation, more community gardens or an overpass. Discussion topics are endless! This is an opportunity to meet new people, discuss new ideas and most importantly, to have your voices heard. We hope to see you there!

New program dates for fall

With fall fast approaching, we are getting ready to offer our usual programs again. Our ever popular Baby Babble and Toddler Talk program is scheduled for Wednesday afternoons (1-3pm) beginning October 1^st and ending December 3^rd.  Contact us in September for a calendar of events.  Ah-Ha! Homework Club is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30pm-8pm beginning September 9^th. We are looking for a new homework club coordinator- please contact us to find out more. Both of these programs will take place in our office, room #2.

We are also set up to offer public computer use and our 1 on 1 computer lessons. You are welcome to drop by anytime to use the public computers. For 1 on 1 computer lessons, please contact us to book an appointment. We are able to help with all sorts of computers, including iPads and smartphones- please bring your own device with you. 

How does our garden grow?

Wow, look at how much the youth garden plot has grown this summer! Thanks to the bad spring weather, the garden took a beating at the beginning. But despite that, the plot has grown to be a lovely, bright spot in the community garden in Kinsmen Park. Thank you to our dedicated volunteers who have made this happen. If you haven't seen the garden yet, make sure to stop by soon! 

Right after planting

Now!

Our office has moved!

We are still in the Martensville Civic Centre, but our office is now down the hall in room #2 (the old planning office). We are (mostly) organized and ready to go! There is a lot of construction going on outside for the new city grounds, but the building is open. Parking is now shared with city hall.  

Canada Day Was a Huge Success!

Did you make it to the Martensville Canada Day event this year? It was so much fun! There were new games and face painting for the kids, a fantastic outdoor movie, fireworks, cake and ice cream, great prizes and more! If you didn't make it out this year, we hope you'll join us next year. Every year we add more and more as our city grows. If you have any suggestions for next year's activities, please give us a shout!

Canada Day is Around the Corner!

Here at the Martensville Community Access Centre, we are busy planning our Canada Day celebration. We are making posters, organizing supplies and all that fun stuff. We have many activities planned that we would like to have running throughout the event, but unfortunately we do not have enough volunteers at this time to make that plan a reality. If you can volunteer some time for this event, please contact us at the centre. Time slots are only 30 minutes long and there are many kinds of activities to choose from.

Whether you are a volunteer or just want to come for the fun, we hope to see you and your family at the Canada Day Celebration at the North Ridge Community Centre on July 1st!

The Youth Engagement Society at the Community Garden

The Youth Engagement Society's garden plot is up and running! Over the past two weeks, the group has been busy planting flowers and veggies- including: onions, tomatoes, hot peppers and cucumbers, among other things. They have used old tires as planters, and later this summer, the group hopes to paint the tire planters in bright, fun colors to add some pizzazz. The community garden is located in Kinsmen Park, by the ice cream shack. The group meets every Tuesday night for a little weeding and watering. They have an active Facebook group- search for "Youth Engagement Society of Martensville" to keep in the know, and drop by on Tuesday evenings to see what its all about!

Buster Days Parade 2014

The Martensville Community Access Centre was at the Buster Days Parade on June 7- did you see us there? Our centre's coordinator, her daughter and her friend, and the board president decorated a truck with black and green balloons and streamers (the MCAC colors), Canada Day flags, and our program posters. Our office assistant wore a "Storybag Dragon" costume and walked behind the truck to promote our Storybag program. We have a fun theme idea for next year- can't wait!

Spring 2014 Baby Babble and Toddler Talk- Finished for the season!

Spring 2014 Baby Babble and Toddler Talk ended yesterday afternoon. This final session coincided with a few of the Baby Babble moms going back to work- we hope you’ll stop by to say hi in our new office! This spring session was very low-key; discussion topics included emergency preparedness, language development and healthy senses. We were pleasantly surprised to see a couple of toddlers we hadn’t seen since they were infants. We hope to see more returning moms and little ones as well as a few new faces in fall 2014. Check back later for program dates.

Thank you to everyone who participated! 

Canada Day Volunteer Sign Up

Calling all volunteers! We need volunteer help with Canada Day 2014. There are lots of different opportunities available, including:

- set up and clean up
- face painting
- BBQ
- concession
- running activities, such as Donut on a Stick and the Bouncy Castle
- bingo calling

You can sign up for a shift here. Hope to see you there!

Canada Day Volunteer Committee Opportunities

Our annual Canada Day event is coming up faster than anticipated (as usual!) We are looking for volunteers to help out with our planning committee. Would you like to help? Contact us to find out when the next meeting will be.

Community Event: Martensville Business Expo

Featured Storybag: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Now, I realize most parents of toddlers probably have this book. It’s a classic! But that shouldn’t stop you from borrowing this Storybag. Activities are geared towards ages 2-4 and includes:
- motor skill activity "Red Balloons"
- pre-writing and tracing
- color and size matching
- vocabulary games
- and other PreK activities.

It is currently on display in the MCAC office, ready for borrowing! Come on by!

Winter Baby Babble & Toddler Talk Session #4: Nutrition

This week at Baby Babble and Toddler Talk we talked about nutrition and solid food. Some of the parents had already begun introducing solid food, some had not. We discussed what foods the parents had started with and what their little ones seemed to enjoy the most. Always check with your doctor before introducing solid foods and potential allergens to your baby. Today was not instructional, just a friendly discussion between parents sharing their experiences.

Winter Baby Babble and Toddler Talk Session 3: Car Seat Safety

This week at Baby Babble & Toddler Talk we had a wonderful guest 
speaker at the session. Travis Holeha, Child Traffic Safety Coordinator 
with the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute, came by, car seats in tow, 
to give us all a thorough run-down of the current do’s and don’ts 
of car seat safety. Since these rules are always being researched and 
updated, I will not repeat too much information here, but here are a 
few tips:

- There is not a specific recommended model: choose one that fits your 
car. When car seat shopping, choose a retailer that allows you to test 
before you buy. 

- Read the manual. Seriously. 

- Make sure the seat belt that will be going through the car seat locks 
properly when jerked suddenly. If it does not, take it to a dealership. 

- When you’re wrapping up your little one, be careful how poufy the 
wrappings are. Down-filled jackets and other such plushy garments can 
create a safety concern because if the item can compress, the harness 
will not be as tight as it should be in an accident. 

- Use a car seat/booster as long as you can. Replace your car 
seat/booster when the child's head clears the top or exceeds the weight/height 
limit.

- You can take your car and seat into a technician at any time to make 
sure it is secure.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, Travis! 

Winter 2014 Baby Babble and Toddler Talk: Session 1

Our first winter 2014 session unfortunately happened to be on one of the windiest days of the year. Despite the storm, we had a few brave moms and kiddos stop by and hang out with us for a nice, relaxed afternoon.

Winter 2014 Baby Babble and Toddler Talk Session 2: Literacy

Today at Baby Babble and Toddler Talk we talked about Family Literacy. The staff here at the Centre are big book fans so this was a fun topic for us! We discussed various ways of introducing literacy, besides the usual story time. Here is a collection of ideas to introduce literacy to your child:

• Remember that an introduction to reading can be more than stories- try reading poetry, recipes and cereal boxes together. One family that attends our program uses music and lyrics. Another plays board games.
• Provide your child with a comfortable spot for reading and try to limit distractions during story time.
• Pick a regular day for a trip to the library- it's free! Our province has a wonderful request system if your local branch doesn't have what you are looking for.
• Try to spend some time reading in front of your child. When they are young, they want to do everything you do! 
• Since reading and writing go hand in hand, make sure you, the parent, are demonstrating writing in everyday life (shopping lists, sticky notes, keeping a journal).
• Provide child-friendly resources for practicing writing. Make sure to pick pens and pencils that are comfortable for small hands.

Have fun reading with your little ones!

Digital Mapping Project- Valley Manor

The digital mapping is an ongoing resource tracking project the Youth Engagement Society here in Martensville are working on in conjunction with the Martensville Community Access Centre. On Tuesday, Lori Morphy (President of Board) and Kristee Lynn Adrian (Coordinator of the MCAC) headed out to get some help. Youth from Valley Manor School offered their opinions on a few questions, including: Where are the great places for youth in Martensville? Where are the places that are not so great for youth? What is missing in Martensville, and where would you put it? We provided several copies of city maps and let the youth brainstorm. Here are their Top 3 answers per category: 

Where are the great places for youth in Martensville?
- A&W (a very popular response) 
- the parks 
- the public sports areas, including the rinks, ball diamonds, pool, etc. 

Where are the places that are not great?
 - the industrial area
 - the bar 
 - the dump 

What is needed in Martensville and where would you put it?
- mall with food court (and "epic cool" stores) 
- more indoor and outdoor areas for sports and activities 
- a long list of favorite stores and fast food joints- McDonalds was the most popular request 

Thank you to the Valley Manor students for their help!  Special thanks to Mrs. Chiesa, Mr. Little and Mrs Harack for letting us into their classrooms.  If YOU would like to find out more about our Mapping Project or the Youth Engagement Society, please contact us!