SafeSpace Youth Action Board

Winter Edition Newsletter

Look Out For:

• Pride Committee • SYAB Book Club • Hillview Middle School Book Club: facilitated by alums • BGCP - Little Library Project in EPA

• Release of the QuaranTEEN Diaries short film • Virtual Presentations on campus • Legacy Project - the sketchbook

• Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsla: Kitchen take-over in EPA & RWC • Rock the Vote! • Virtual Halloween Costume Contest - Yay Reza!

Holiday Recipe:

Homemade hot chocolate

- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup baking cocoa
- Dash salt
- 1/3 cup hot water
- 4 cups milk
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Miniature marshmallows, sweetened whipped cream or cinnamon sticks, optional

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa and salt. Add water; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in milk; heat to serving temperature (do not boil). Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Whisk until frothy. If desired, garnish with marshmallows, cream or cinnamon sticks.

Hank

This is Hank, a German Shorthaired Pointer rescue who came into our family 2 years ago. He isn't a typical Pointer because 1) he is very big for his breed. 2) He's all brown, and usually they are spotted or speckled. 3) His tail is cropped at an unusual length: sometimes they are left uncropped, but the hunting dogs' tail are cropped short. Hank's tail is cropped in half because he was not "fit to be rebred". We love Hank a lot. He has a very mellow personality but is very energetic.

Pumpkin Muffins

Our favorite fall treats are pumpkin muffins! -Lucinda, Maggie, Lila

Sweet Potato with Marshmallow

My favorite Thanksgiving dish is sweet potato with marshmallows!- Bela

Stuffing

Our favorite Thanksgiving dish is stuffing!- Conor, Lila, and Savannah

Getting Real

What are you worried about right now?

- I’m kind of worried that I am not going to be prepared for AP tests because I feel like it’s hard for me to focus in virtual school and that I am not learning as much as I should- Lila
- I think I am worried about moving out of the house and going to college but I’m also really excited. I know I’m going to be super relieved when my college applications are in, I just need to get there first. -Savannah
- I have been worried about Covid-19 and how it is affecting my education. There is good news about some vaccines but I am concerned about the long term effects of the vaccine. -Bela

How is the college process going?

I think the college process as a whole has been really difficult to navigate especially because of COVID. I have really struggled with trying to get everything done with the strict deadlines but also managing my time productively. Especially in the Bay Area, there is a lot of pressure to attend a prestigious college even when colleges continue to get more competitive. It has been good to reflect on my accomplishments and growth yet it feels like the process never ends. - Conor Burns

With everything going on in the world, having the college process as an extra layer of stress has been overwhelming. Especially with uncertainty about the coming year and the continuation of online school, it is particularly difficult to imagine moving away to college. It is nice, however, to have the looming deadline of November 1 behind me! - Tessa Grosso

Ideas for stocking stuffers

- - Candy, pencils, jewelry
  - Chapstick, chocolate, fuzzy socks
  - Hand Sanitizer
  - Masks
  - Stickers
  - Tissue packs
  - Cough drops
  - Hot cocoa
  - Tea

What are you thankful for?

"I am thankful for my family, friends, education, food, and my house."

"My friends, sunrises, ceramic ghosts, movie nights, frogs, spray paint, sunglasses, lots of things"

"I am thankful for family, my education, shelter, good health, friends, and extracurricular activities"

"I am thankful for my amazing friendships, my dog, and my supportive parents"

"Fresh air, food, my family, my dog, plants, birds"

"Thankful for my supportive family during these unprecedented times"

QuaranTEEN Short Film

Thank you Arya, Kai, Libby, Mira, Reza and Samer for being a part of our QuaranTEEN Diaries film! We want to thank EVERYONE who submitted their selfie video for this project and hope you can share it with your friends, family and school. We look forward to having panel presentations at various campuses and virtual screenings. We will host an internal SYAB screening at an upcoming Super Zoom - so stay tuned!

Holiday Traditions!

We typically do a huge, "everyone and their mother is welcome" Thanksgiving, but this year we will have to adapt. I also love cutting down our Christmas trees. It always signifies the start of the holidays, especially when we luck out with a rainy day!
On the day of Thanksgiving, we all go surfing together!
On christmas eve we always make a ton of spaghetti and have a ton of people over and at the end of the night we read twas the night before Christmas
For new years with my mom's family we often eat the number of black beans that correspond to our age as well as home made miso soup and mochi.
We do a dish walk on Thanksgiving

Alum Spotlight

Emily Zurcher, Class of 2020, M-A HS

Attending Victoria College at the University of Toronto, Canada

What do you know now in college that you wish you had known before?

I wish I had knowm how scary/stressful/daunting/exciting it can be trying to make new friends. It's something people don't talk about much, and it always seems like everyone just makes these great friends and it's all so easy, but it is such a big transition for so many people and can be tough. It's normal and totally okay to feel scared, but it's also super exciting and in the end usually works out b/c for the most part everyone is super nice and are all also looking to make friends.

School Spotlight: Local Schools and Their Mental Health Initiatives

Menlo School

Mental Health at Menlo, the school's student run mental health club, has adopted a theme of "balance" for the school year. Most recently, Kelechi Ubozoh came to a school-wide assembly to share her story of a suicide attempt, recovery, and advocacy. She touched on racial injustice and provided students with helpful perspective for mental health during COVID. The student body walked away with tangible ways to reach out to their friends who may be sturggling. Mental Health at Menlo will continue to meet weekly to discuss mental health during virtual learning.

Sacred Heart

The Sacred Heart community has definetly been struggling with the whole semester being virtual and life in general. We have been working really hard to try to support our community during this time. We organized an "Among Us" night for freshman to get to know each other and feel like a community. Additionally, we are working on tackling body image through an assembly. Lastly, we will be creating a mental health session to incorporate in a school wide event focused on creating positive change and bringing awareness to a variety of issues.

Freshman Transition Presentations!

Nearly 1,000 studtents heard from our SafeSpace M-A team about the importance of mental health wellness and how to receive support!

Thank you Ms. Hettal!

Ms. Hettal from M-A joined our Zoom to talk about 504 Plans: the process, what to expect and how to advocate for yourself.

15 Presentations total!

How to help a friend in need presentation to the freshman class via Zoom.

Congratulations for your award and recognition!

Gigi & Elle (juniors at Woodside)

If you have a school update you'd like to include in the newsletter, contact the Communications committee

Pride

Thank you to Pride Committee for your Good Allyship workshop and for everyone who attended!

Shout-out: Gigi, Kai and Megan for mentoring middle schoolers on how to start their own GSA at Hillview!

Book Club at Hillview & La Entrada

Shout-out: Isabelle, Jane, Julia, Kai, & Riley for faciliating the book club for the middle schoolers Oct - Dec!

If you're interested in being a facilitator in January, contact: Annie@safespace.org

Meeting in January!

Email: somersetgrant@my.smccd.edu

We are on the waitlist!

Email: Annie@safespace.org

Podcast coming soon!

Email: mira.devgan@menloschool.org

SafeSpace + Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula

Kitchen take-over: serving close to 2,000 meals daily!

We hope to start signing up again at the EPA & RWC sites in January.

SafeSpace Bookmarks!

Shout-out: SM Community Committee for producing creative bookmarks with mental health resources for youth!

Looking forward to hosting in-person meetings again when it is safe.

Self Care Tips For the Holidays:

Small Businesses to Highlight

Donut Depot

Go over and buy some donuts at 3383 Middlefield Rd, Menlo Park! :)

Pathwater

Environmentally friendly water bottles! Go check them out.

Warm Well Wishes...

Wishing each and every one of you a cozy holiday season.

It was a tough year in many ways - YOU DID IT / WE DID IT!

I am grateful and inspired by all of you. Thank you for your enthusiasm, dedication, honesty, for showing up, the wonderful laughs and for keeping it real.

Celebrating one year with SafeSpace - YAY!!

Looking forward to 2021!

~Annie Kim, Managing Director

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