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YMCA Camp Sherwin, 8600 West Lake Road, will host a camp clean-up on Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16.

Volunteers are needed to help get the camp ready for the new season. Some of the projects planned for the cleanup include grounds beautification, cabin cleaning and paint touch-ups.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Sean Amicucci at 452-3261, Ext. 270.

The camp is also still looking for volunteers to help at the Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 30 from 2 to 4 p.m. Call the number above for more information or to sign up to help.

YMCA Camp Sherwin, 8600 West Lake Road, Lake City, will host its third annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 30, and is seeking volunteers to help out.

Volunteers are needed for a variety of positions, including kitchen help, children’s games and crafts, egg hiders, parking attendants, registration and more.

This is a terrific opportunity for families, scout troops, youth needing to complete service hours or anyone that wants to be part of this fun, family event.

Do yourself some good — and have fun — while doing good for Erie. The 2013 Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community Erie will take place Saturday, June 8, at Presque Isle State Park. This year’s Walk benefits 25 local health and human service organizations, including the Erie County Diabetes Association, YMCA of Greater Erie, Therapy Dogs United and the Mental Health Association of NW Pennsylvania, among others. Walk participants can choose which organization they want their donations to go to. For the complete list of participating organizations, or to register for the walk, go to www.HighmarkHealthyWalk.org.

On-site registration and check-in will begin at 7:45 a.m. on June 8, and the walk, which is 5K (3.1 miles), will start at 9 a.m. There’s also a 1-mile fun walk, which starts at 9:15 a.m. The walk will be held rain or shine. Strollers and wheelchairs are permitted.

After the walk, participants can enjoy food, beverages, music, activities and prize drawings. For every $50 a walker donates or raises in support of a participating organization, they will receive one raffle ticket. Prizes worth a total of more than $1,000 will be raffled off.

Walkers who donate or raise $25 or more will receive a Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community T-shirt (while supplies last).

Parking is available at Beach 1, but get there early because it fills up fast.

Big Brothers Big Sisters, a program of Family Services of NW PA, will announce a partnership with the YMCA of Greater Erie during its holiday party this afternoon.

Children who participated in the YMCA’s after-school programs will be eligible for a Big Brothers Big Sisters “match.” Matches of youth and adult mentors will meet for one hour per week and ideally utilize the equipment and programs at the YMCA branches.

“We are thrilled at the opportunity to partner with such a wonderful organization,” said Paula Hayes, director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, in a news release. “Not only will we be able to provide more children with a big brother or sister, this partnership also provides volunteers throughout the county with additional opportunities to get involved and make a difference.”

I featured one Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer on this blog a few months ago. Read about Jessica Crossman’s experience with the program and learn how you can get involved.

One great way to give back during the holiday season is to add a gift donation to your shopping list.

This week’s YMCA of Greater Erie’s newsletter featured a couple ongoing gift collections:

-Operation Give Thanks: The Boot Camp Class at the Glenwood Park YMCA is filling care packages to send to our troops.  They’re accepting donations through Dec. 17.

-Giving Trees: Check out the giving trees at the Downtown, County and Glenwood Park YMCAs. Gifts will be accepted into December.

Do you know of any other gift collections in the Erie area? E-mail me the details at catherine.cloutier@timesnews.com.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The 2nd annual YMCA of Greater Erie’s Camp Sherwin Apple Fest needs volunteers for a variety of positions to ensure that participants have “bushels of family fun.”

The festival will take place on Oct. 20 and last from 10 a.m. until sunset.

Volunteers will run games and activities, serve meals and register participants. The full list of volunteer roles is below:

· Basketball Shoot Out Game: Oversee this fun game of shooting hoops and hand out prizes to the winners.
· Magician’s Assistant: Help the magician with his tricks
· Tie Dye: assist children in tie dyeing t-shirts.
· Bounce House and Obstacle Course: Monitor the children’s use of the bounce house and Obstacle Course
· Kid’s Games: Organize games ranging from Hop-Scotch to
Ring Toss Games.
· Face Painting and Crafts: Design and paint the faces of the
children and help them with crafts.
· Maple Donuts On A String: Help attach the donuts and oversee the game.
· Cake/Wine Walk: Organize these games including collecting the money, setting up the squares and drawing the winning number.
· Bingo/Small Games of Chance: Help call numbers and hand out
prizes and selling games of chance.
· Johnny Apple Seed: Dress up in provided costumes and hand
out apples.
· Haunted Trail: Dress up in provided costumes and haunt the
visitors to the trails.
· Breakfast, lunch and dinner: Help with set-up, serving and clean-up.
· Parking Attendant: Direct cars to park and collect parking fee.
· Registration Table: Register visitors and distribute information packets.
· 50/50 Sellers: Sell 50/50 tickets throughout the day.
· Chinese Auction: Help organize donations, sell tickets, pull winning numbers and organize winners with prizes.

More information about volunteer shifts can be found on the YMCA’s website.

To get involved, contact Victoria Stilson, community involvement and member engagement coordinator at the YMCA, at 452-3261 Ext. 240 or at vstilson@ymcaerie.org.

Photo by GREG WOHLFORD

It’s Easter time and that means egg hunts galore. We have a complete listing here.

For those feeling particularly altruistic this Holy Saturday, The Erie County YMCA’s Camp Sherwin, on 8600 West Lake Road in Lake City, needs volunteers for its Easter Egg Hunt and Open House on Saturday.

The event runs from 2 to 4 p.m.

Volunteers are need as scavenger-hunt and egg-hunt helpers, concession stand cooks and cashiers, kids’ games referees, parking attendants, fishing helpers, face painters, auction organizers, raffle sellers and cleanup crew members. In short, there are a lot of ways to get involved.

Call Tammy Crawford, program director, at 882-5033 for more information.

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Know of Easter events that need volunteers? Leave the information below.