A group of 20 middle school students met as part of the Youth Empowerment Group (YEG) three times in the fall/early winter to take a look at the 2011 data from the YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Survey). Students discussed various strengths and concerns before narrowing it down to their top 3 or 4. The YEG group then created an action plan of how to tackle the areas of concern and presented their ideas (to an audience of 75+) during a parent dialogue night on May 9th. The parents and middle school students who attended that night, shared their ideas regarding the concerning areas (click here to view the information and ideas). Those ideas are highlighted in blue on the attachment. The YEG group, with the help of staff, parents and outside resources, will move forward to put some of these ideas into ACTION! 

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  Field days is June 13th with a rain date of June 14th. Parents/Grandparents/Aunts/Uncles volunteer to run stations during outdoor relay games. K-2nd grade are in the morning and then 3rd and 4th are in the afternoon. Please sign up here if you wish to volunteer to help out with GEMS Annual Field Days.

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The annual Middle School Athletic Banquet will be on Wednesday, June 5 at 6 p.m. in the Big Gym and Cafeteria. This will be a pot-luck event and your student athlete will bring home a handout with dish assignments by sport or you can click here for a copy. If there are any questions please contact Mr. Coleman.

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The GEMS 8th grade class is hard at work on this year's Rube Goldberg Machine Mini Golf Course. A Rube Goldberg Machine is a machine that does something simple via a series of complex interactions. This year the students are building a golf course made of these machines that the community can come play on Wednesday, June 12th. 

To keep you updated on the progress of the machines, students have been posting to a project blog to reflect on their trials and tribulations. Please feel free to check out the blog by clicking here.

You can always comment with suggestions for their machines. See you at the course!

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Registration: May 26th - July 26th
Deadline: ALL PLAYERS MUST BE REGISTERED BY JULY 26TH
Who: Players who will be entering Kindergarten through 6th grade (7-8 registered through GEMS)
How: Click here, some hard-copies will be located in the GEMS office starting on May 28th

Georgia Youth Soccer (GYS) is a strictly volunteer organization ta ht relies on the efforts of many people, most especially the parents of our players. To ensure the continued success of our program it is imperative that volunteers are available for each age group. COACHES ARE NEEDED AT ALL LEVELS. Please indicate if you are willing to coach by clicking the volunteer box during the registration process.

There is now a GYS page on the GEMS site! It is located on the left under Athletics. Currently you can find registration information there. Eventually you will be able to find coach information, game schedules and general announcements!

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Between June 30-July 12 BFA Fairfax will be hosting 30 Chinese exchange students. They are looking for families who are able to host two students for this time period. Host families will be responsible for transportation to and from school (bus may be available), meals, evening activities and weekend activities. Some weekend group activities may be available which host families may participate. Students will be in classes and activities during the school day. 

If a host family has a student at BFA high school that youth may be eligible for elective credit!!!  A stipend is available per youth hosted.

If interested please contact Pastor Liz, at pastorali@earthlink.net.

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Looking for events in the community? The Georgia Public Library and the Fairfax Community Library have events scheduled for the whole family during the month! If you are looking for information about events at the Georgia Public Library, please click here. If you are looking for information about events at the Fairfax Community Library, please click here. 

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Sports Physicals are required for students in grades 5-8 wishing to play any afterschool sport. Athletes may not practice/play without this form on file. 

Students in these grades are very physically active so we ask that ALL students have a current copy of the sports clearance form from their doctor.  These forms are kept on file for physical education classes, field trips and extra curricular sports.

If you need a copy of the Vermont Department of Health form CLICK HERE, or if you would like to link directly to the Vermont Department of Health click here.

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