March 11, 2004 - Bancroft Times, by Tammy Wilson

Local students from different schools have come together to keep kids informed on what’s going on around them.
A committee called Youth Reloaded, Youth Changing Tomorrow…Today, was formed after Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC) held a Youth Leadership Retreat last November at Joseph’s Resort.
“The kids attended the one-night retreat and, after discussion about what was needed in the community, a few of them decided it would be beneficial to release a newsletter once a month to the different schools in the area letting them know what’s going on,” said Kevin Taylor, Project Manager at CFDC.
The group is made up of students, aged 12-16, that attended Senior Elementary, North Hastings High School and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School.
The newsletter includes subjects like:  fun things to do in the community; recipes; helpful hints; a joke of the month; popular internet sites; and a letter to the Editor.
All students are welcome to drop off material to one of the people on the committee or to the CFDC office on Chemaushgon Street.  Right now, the committee is looking for letters to be released in April.
The first newsletter was expected to be released in February, but the committee found there were some obstacles that had to be overcome before publication was possible.
“The hardest thing the kids had to do was to sell advertisements.  The difficulty with that held the newsletter back, but they have recently got some good news from the North Hastings Board of Education (NHBE),” said Taylor.
After seeing the newsletter and recognizing its importance to the students of the area, the NHBE have agreed to pay for the printing and the distribution of the paper, called Youth Star.  CFDC have said they would supply the coloured paper, alleviating any pressure for the committee to sell advertisements.
Each month, 1350 copies of Youth Star are printed, with 1,100 of them being distributed to Our Lady of Mercy, Coe Hill, Maynooth, Bancroft Public, Bird’s Creek Public, NHHS and Hermon Public schools.  The rest are dropped off in offices around the community.
“All of the students on the committee have shown me they are serious about this project and have clearly committed themselves to the newsletter.  They always show up at the meetings and are coming up with new ideas,” said Taylor.
With the extra space that will be available because of the removal of advertisements, there will be new subjects mentioned in the newsletter.
The committee hopes to be able to organize movie nights, dances and other activities that will draw the young population out to participate in events together.
“The committee’s whole mission was to create more things for kids their ages to do and be involved in, and I think they’re clearly on the right path to making that happen,” said Taylor.