For two decades, the Youth Board at Guilford Youth & Family Services (GYFS) has campaigned for teens in town during the holiday season. This year the program that delivers a thoughtful gift for the sometimes-overlooked teen segment marks its 20th anniversary, with the organization is holding a gift card drive on Saturday, Dec. 11 at Fresh Market.

GYFS Youth Prevention Specialist Mark Kosko helps monitor the program said the Teen Gift Card Program is teen-driven and is a testament to not only the benevolence and kindness of Guilford teens, but to the success of projects when the voices of youth are considered.

The organization strives to not only include youth in decision-making, but also seeks out their opinions and creativity when developing programs for GYFS.

“Typically, the boards have always been middle- and high-school students coming together to help put their voice into community programming,” said Kosko. “That has always been the goal. They have always come up with community service projects and events. Everything the group completes as projects are guided by their ideas.”

According to Kosko, the generosity of shoreline donors is often humbling, with toy drives and senior events are held every season. However, older kids are sometimes left out of these efforts.

“The teens that began the group 20 years ago identified older kids as being overlooked around the holidays and that is how the whole drive started. This will be the 20th year running with it, and again, it was all programs and needs that the kids identified. We enjoy working with this board because they bring a different perspective and up until they started this program teens tended to be overlooked,” said Kosko. “There are Toys for Tots and other programs, which collect for younger kids and which is absolutely a need, but with [the youth Board] perspective, we were able to come to the table and say. ‘Hey, you know there older siblings who feel more left out of the holiday’ and that is why they targeted that group.”

Kosko said that GYFS organizes with a number of other entities in town to ensure the gifts get to those who most need it.

“We coordinate with social services here in town as well as with the police department here in town, so it’s a group effort. There are multiple groups are doing the drive so we coordinate with them for our lists,” said Kosko. “Also, our agency has a clinical component here, so we do see clients and we do have a partnership with Guilford High School, so we are able to identify students in need, and everything we take in benefits residents here in town.”

How to Help

According to Kosko, the organizers want to emphasize the giving of local business’s gift cards this year to help support the town in two ways. Residents can give an actual gift card as a donation, or they can make a monetary donation, allowing the group to purchase cards that are most in need for teens.

“If people can use local businesses that is great. Kids at this age are starting to go to coffee houses, or into some of the local sub shops. We always try and say that if we can continue to support local businesses within the community that’s great, so we accept just about anything that people want to donate,” Kosko said. “We will take monetary donations as well. Any monetary donations that come in, we will just then use those funds to go out into the community and purchase gift cards in areas that might be lacking. Those donations help us fill in any gaps on what teens might need.”

According to Kosko, the success of this drive is something of which all residents should be proud.

“I think it’s really important to reflect that we were able to run with something that the youth came up with, and something that’s been impacting their peers. To have a program like that being run is very important in terms of building up the community and having the youth here in town feel that their opinions and their ideas are valued,” said Kosko. “It comes full circle because it impacts their direct peers.”

Residents can drop off gift cards at the gift card drive on Saturday, Dec. 11 at Fresh Market in the Guilford Commons from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or drop off gifts and monetary donations directly with GYFS at its offices at 36 Graves Avenue in Guilford. Call the office at 203-453-8047 for more information.