Bridges Outreach Blog

Being blessed by true community partnerships

2012-01-16T13:39:00.000-05:00

About five years ago Bridges reached a critical point where we realized we were serving hundreds of middle school students each year and then sort of abandoning them when they got to high school. High school students would come visit us at the middle schools and talk about the challenges of high school and how we really needed to have Bridges at high school because they missed it.

At this point in our ministry we were still really small and only had two full-time staff and one part-time, plus we didn't have much money or a place to run any kind of a high school program. As an organization we began praying that God would open some doors and provide a way for us to meet the needs of our students. Sure enough, God provided and made a way for us to continue being a part of our students' lives and their stories.

We knew that the program would have to be in the evening, because all of our staff would be with the middle school students everyday after school. We also knew that the location of the program would need to be somewhere centrally located, since transportation is often an issue with our students. The first place we thought of was the Kokomo YMCA. We had a good relationship with the Executive Director, Dave Dubois, and it was the perfect location, plus they're a Christian organization. Sure enough, when we approached Dave with the idea of running a Bridges Outreach program in the evening at their building, him and the staff at the Y were totally on board. They were actually in the process of cleaning out a room that would be perfect for us and they said it was all ours, we could even decorate it and paint it however we wanted.

What a huge blessing!!! All we were looking for was somewhere to hang out with our high school students for a couple of hours a few days a week and the Y blesses us with a place we can call our own! We quickly went to work painting, decorating and making the room our own. We tried to make the room as welcoming and homy as we could, we even posted pictures of our students all over the room.

Over the next five years some pretty awesome stuff would happen in that room. We spent countless hours with our students in there. Helping them with homework, playing games with them and going through God's Word, teaching them about His unbelievable love and grace. Eventually we hired a full-time staff person to run our high school program, which we named Bridges-to-College, or BTC, and we outgrew that room that the Y had blessed us with. Then the Y went a step further and opened up the HYVE, their teen center, to our program and students.

This year we decided to transition our high school program and move it to Kokomo High School, with the hopes of having a larger impact and presence with the student body there. We are an organization that prides ourself on the partnerships we've been able to build to better our community and specifically the young people in Kokomo. Our partnership with the Y allowed us to take a program that did not exist, to a program that has served hundreds of kids each year. As we move forward we're really excited about growing our program and really making an impact on the culture at KHS, but we wouldn't be where we are now without the support of the Kokomo YMCA!

Thank You Michelle!

2011-11-09T11:35:00.003-05:00

With Bridges only being six years old, we haven't had to say good-bye to very many people. A few weeks ago we celebrated the time we were able to enjoy working and serving with Michelle Daubenmire. Michelle and her husband Phil will soon be celebrating the birth of their first child and Michelle will be staying at home to care of the new baby.

We're extremely excited for Phil and Michelle and this new, exciting chapter of their life, but will definitely miss the commitment and dedication Michelle served our students and organization with. She did such a great job managing our Bridges to College program as well as our Project 30 mentoring program. She went out of her way to develop relationships with the high school students she served through BTC and did such a good job working with the mentors and schools and the craziness that came with trying to organize Project 30.

She will desperately be missed by our students, staff and everyone else connected to Bridges! But, we can't wait to see that new little Daubenmire and how awesome of a parent her and Phil are going to be!

Summer Slam 2011

2011-06-29T12:10:00.012-04:00

This summer our Summer Slam theme is Health & Fitness. We have almost completed two weeks and the kids are beginning to adjust to all the exercising we're having them do! We have already had so many people and groups volunteer and donate time and finances to help us run this fun, yet educational program! We want to say a huge thanks to St. Vincent/St. Joe Health for donating $5,000 to Bridges to help fund Summer Slam. We have also partnered with their Project 18 program which utilizes curriculum to teach healthy habits to the students.

Additionally, we want to thank The Hayden Corporation for donating water bottles for our students to use during the summer. With all the exercise and activities we are doing with the students, the water bottles have helped keep them hydrated!

All the students are working hard, exercising for 30 minutes each day and participating in a sport twice a week! Additionally, the students have learned about the USDA's new "my plate" which has replaced the food pyramid. The students are logging the food each day on choosemyplate.gov which then shows them if they are eating the proper recommendations from each food group and analyzes their nutrient intake. Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll all be making healthier food choices! Of course, it's not a complete summer without our weekly field trips. We went to Raceway Fun Park for our first field trip.

A couple of our students are learning about nutrition by helping in our plot at the community garden. They are learning how to grow and take care of tomato plants and various herbs. We want to say a huge thank you to one of our Project 30 mentors, Joyce, who is also a Master Gardener, and is teaching the students the ins and outs of gardening!

BTC Spends Spring Break In Nashville

2011-04-13T10:49:00.005-04:00

Last week we took 4 of our BTC students to Nashville, TN for Spring Break. A highlight of the week was spending 3 days serving at the Nashville Rescue Mission. Most of the students had never done any volunteer work before so it was an even greater eye-opening experience for them. We spent one day serving lunch to over 400 men, including homeless men and men in the Mission's program. The other two days were spent in the warehouse going through various donations. We sorted over 1,700 pairs of shoes, hundreds of cans of food, hundreds of clothes, and more! The students worked incredibly hard and had a blast volunteering. The students left their time at the Mission very humbled and grateful for what they have in Kokomo. They realized that at least they have shelter, food each day, and clean clothes which the men at the Mission would not have if it weren't for the services provided by the Mission.

In addition to volunteering we had a blast exploring Nashville. We toured the Country Music Hall of Fame and TN State Museum (which the students admitted was actually interesting and not boring like they originally thought)! We attended an NHL Predators game, which was by far one of our favorite events...there's nothing like seeing a fight in hockey! We toured a few historical sites downtown Nashville, experienced the Nashville Zoo, and basked in the warm weather at Centennial Park. On the way home we stopped at Mammoth Cave in KY, exploring the depths of the cave. It was an incredible experience.

Here are some pictures that help capture highlights from our trip...

Thanks Z92.5!

2011-04-06T10:21:00.002-04:00

A big thank you to Z92.5 for letting us guest host with them over spring break two mornings. We had a blast! It helped us spread the vision of Bridges, promote Donkeyball on April 13th and catch up on all the celebrity news. They do a tremendous job of supporting everyone in Kokomo and building our community in a positive way! We are extremely grateful for your support!

DONKEYBALL coming back to Kokomo!

2011-03-28T13:11:00.002-04:00

Bridges Outreach & The Crossing are hosting the 2011 Donkeyball basketball game. This year we have four teams competing for the Championship: Police, Fire, Kokomo-Schools & Community Churches.

The game is at 7 pm on Wed, April 13th at Kokomo High School (South Campus)

Tickets are $7 in advance & $9 at the gate (children 5 and under are free)

We are selling tickets at Jamies, YMCA and all three Community First Bank locations.

Come out and see some hilarious entertainment and support two great causes!

National Mentoring Month

2011-01-14T10:01:00.004-05:00

January is National Mentoring Month! This month 5 different mentoring organizations in Kokomo (Project 30, New Leaf Mentoring, the Crossing School, Parent 2 Parent (KHS), and Book Buddies @ Head Start) came together to celebrate and promote mentoring. The mayor and the various mentoring organizations in Kokomo celebrated "Mentoring Day" in Kokomo on Tuesday, January 11th. Many people from the community came to learn about the urgent need for mentors and to see how they can get involved. You can watch the presentation at:
http://www.cityofkokomo.org
It runs about 4-5 times a day on KGOV (KGOV Video Streaming or Channel 2 locally)

In case you are yet unaware, there is a waiting list of over 300 students at the elementary, middle school, & high school level who are in need of a mentor. Bridges Outreach's mentoring program is called Project 30. If you are interested in mentoring please call us at 765.452.5723 and we'd be happy to tell you about the needs for our program and the other mentoring programs in town. Make a difference in the life of a child. Be A Mentor!

Bridges Celebrates Christmas

2011-01-05T10:30:00.007-05:00

We were so blessed to share Christmas with our students and their families. Here is a highlight video from our Christmas party!

Christmas Party 2010 from Casey Cline on Vimeo.

Colts Game

2010-12-07T14:31:00.005-05:00

This past Sunday Bridges was extremely blessed with a rare opportunity: Sponsored Colts Tickets! We took 9 of our high school students to the Colts vs. Cowboys game. It was the first time any of them had been to Lucas Oil Stadium and for 8 of them it was the first time they'd ever been to a Colts game. Needless to say they were so excited to go to the game and they had a blast! Through the Colts Community Partnership the Bridges students not only received free tickets to the game, but they also got to have their picture taken on the field, receive a free t-shirt, and a food voucher! What a priceless experience! Although the Colts were unable to pull off a "W", we had a blast!

Giving Great Thanks!

2010-11-05T15:24:00.002-04:00

As we reflect on the busyness of the Fall and how fast time always seems to fly, we are grateful for the season we are in. With November now upon us and Thanksgiving & Christmas quickly approaching, it always gives us an extra reason to pause and reflect on what we're Thankful for! Bridges sees God's blessings on a daily basis. We are so thankful that amidst a difficult economy God continues to provide above and beyond for our students and their families. We are thankful for our students who are getting plugged into church (and for some, it's the first time they've ever been involved in a church)! We are thankful for the students who have been consistently coming to our after school programs! The students are such a blessing in our lives and we feel privileged to get to hang out with them and get to know their stories! We are thankful for our staff and volunteers that make a daily difference in the lives of the students! We are thankful for our 270 mentors who are tirelessly going into the schools every week for 30 minutes to make a positive difference in the lives of children! We are thankful for the schools for being willing to open their doors to the community so that we can be part of the process of impacting our youth for the future! We could go on and on with this list of what we're thankful for. What are you thankful for?

Camp

2010-11-05T15:01:00.008-04:00

We always seem to be a little slow in updating our blog! But alas, we want to share with you all about CAMP! Taking kids to camp is one of our and one of the students' favorite times of year.

In addition to taking middle school students to Spring Hill this year we also took high school students for the first time! Spring Hill introduced a new program called Diverge where youth groups (or individual students) come for a week of camp. It's set up similar to their weekend retreats where the high schoolers have their own speaker and band all week. When they weren't being challenged by Jeffrey Dean they were out participating in all the regular camp activities (blob, zipline, crafts, etc)!!! We took two high school students, Anna & Kassy, both of whom walked away challenged and encouraged to pursue a deeper relationship with God. One of the girls admitted that although she wasn't ready to enter into a personal relationship with God, she had a better understanding of who He was and began asking deep questions about why He should be important in her life!!! It touched my heart to see the girls so passionate about learning more!

This year for KAA we were blessed to partner with Zo Smith, a youth leader in town, and his students. Normally one of our biggest obstacles getting to KAA is trying to find a bus that will transport our students all the way to Branson, MO. God is always faithful, and this year He was abundantly faithful as we received a bus where the seats turned into beds at night. That means the students (and staff!) got to sleep much more comfortably than normal!!! KAA always provides us staff with an opportunity to get refreshed and to have deep group discussions with our students. Our students are already asking when they get to sign up for KAA and camp is still 8 months away!!!

Thank you to the many partners who help us send students to camp each year! Our students, who wouldn't be able to afford camp on their own, are able to experience God in a whole new way because of many people's generous support! Thank You!

We Won!

2010-10-14T22:20:00.002-04:00

The Community Foundation of Howard County hosted a “Legacy Society” luncheon for local nonprofits to discuss charitable giving. The CFHC awarded three endowments as prizes for agencies that had at least five board members in attendance. Thankfully, our board all showed up and on the $3000 endowment (2nd prize) they pulled Bridges out of the hat. This will help us start a much needed funding source that will last for many generations to come. If you ever have any questions about bequests benefiting Bridges (wills, estate planning, retirement, endowments, etc) please give us a call and we can set up a meeting.

Summer's End

2010-08-02T15:35:00.006-04:00

Just like it's always hard to believe how quickly the school year flies by, it's always astonishing at how quickly the summer comes and goes. Bridges had a phenomenal summer. Our Summer Slam program, which lasted for 5 weeks, had an average of 32 6th-10th grade students every day. What growth from last year! This year's theme was "Exploration"-exploring various careers and hobbies. Our students had the opportunity to visit the Kokomo airport, Howard Regional Hospital, Shearer Printing, the Police Station, a local veterinarian hospital, and more. We were blessed to have many people come in and share about thier careers & hobbies as well. The students learned about water color, Zumba exercise, the art of writing and designing a comic book, the role of the county coroner, and much more. It was an extremely fun and educational summer! Here are some pictures from our weekly field trips:

Summer Slam 2010 from Casey Cline on Vimeo.

Vamos a la Guatemala ! :)

2010-07-19T13:36:00.005-04:00

This summer going to Guatemala was honestly the best thing I've ever done in my life! The thought of going out of the country was amazing within itself. It was even more amazing getting to serve the children and staff at Casa Bernabe. For 2 whole weeks I got to be the hands and feet of God and do nothing but serve. Every morning we would get up and have breakfast at 7 am. From after breakfast until lunch there were different groups working on different work projects. There were some people working in the garden, working on the medical clinic, and doing other various projects. It was really whatever the orphanage needed done at the time. I, myself worked on painting one of the houses. We painted 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, laundry room, and even some furniture. Almost everyday from about 7:30 am to 1 pm was nothing but painting.

After lunch was my time to relax and shower. It was time to just hang out until about 3 when we would have "kid time". We spent time with kids, Addie would tell a story from the bible and along with the story we would do a craft and a game. On the first day of kid time the kids made bracelets and one of the older boys, Rudy made me a bracelet. It was just so thoughtful of him to make me one before himself. To this day I still wear it everyday. During kid time we got to really just spend one on one time with each of the kids.

My favorite part of the day was after kid time. Most days as long as it wasn't raining we would play soccer. ALL of the kids there were really good at soccer. I think thats where I connected the most with the kids. After that dinner was at 6 and a team meeting sometime after that. The team would just all sit around and just share our day with each other. Then it was a game of cards and off to bed.

One of the really cool things I got to do was going to church, just knowing that they worship the same God as we do. It makes me realize that God is so much bigger than we think. Both Fridays we were in Guatemala we got to get away from the orphanage. The first Friday we went to Antigua, Antigua is a market where we got to go shopping. The second Friday we took the whole orphanage to a water park. Seeing how happy taking them to the water park made them and buying the pizza after just really felt good. Another thing we got to do was go and buy each of the 9 houses snacks. Of course they are provided with food but they don't get snacks so again seeing how happy it made them felt good to know we were apart of it. There are at least 15 kids to each house, and it was kinda disappointing that they only had enough to maybe get 2 of each snack. It was still really great to see how thankful they were.

Connecting with the children was great but I also got to connect with my team. I got to bond with 25 other people who were there to serve along my side. The number one thing I've learned and that has stayed with me is that God will ALWAYS provide. He will always provide for us, and it's because he loves us. Right now my mom is going through a divorce and it seems like it's hard but I know that some way and somehow God will provide. Going to Guatemala has made me have a better understanding of that. Serving Casa Beranabe was truly one of the best things I've ever done! -Karyssa F. Pratt

Summer's Here!

2010-05-24T11:48:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that summer is nearly upon us! We've had an awesome school year this year at Bridges this year! From the field trips to the time spent working on homework we've had an absolute blast this year. Check out this video to see some of our highlights:

2009-2010 Year-in-Review

Boy am I Hungry!

2010-05-10T22:32:00.002-04:00

On April 30 Bridges participated with First Church of God in World Vision's 30 Hour Famine. The objective of the famine is to raise awareness and money to help eradicate world hunger. The key component of the Famine is students committing to giving up food for 30 hours to get a small glimpse of what it's like to be without food. Students also were tasked with retrieving water from the retention pond every hour if they wanted water or juice. We did some community service the next morning and after 30 hours broke our fast by engorging ourselves on nachos.

30 Hour Famine 2010 from Casey Cline on Vimeo.

Bridges New Travel/Shopping Site

2010-04-26T13:41:00.001-04:00

Bridges has a new funding resource that can save you time and money and help out our ministry. "Travel by Bridges Outreach” is our new one stop shopping site that helps people save money on travel, shopping and much more. This site combines all the major sites until one and kicks back a portion (around 7%) of every purchase to Bridges Outreach. It is very similar to Kayak, Expedia or Travelocity, but many times has cheaper rates. Items that can be purchased include: airfare, hotels, cruises, rental cars, vacations, flowers, gift cards, concert/sporting tickets and all kinds of shopping items (technology, gifts, books, food, etc). Please check it out regularly and keep us in mind when you travel and shop.
Thank you! Here is our site that turns vacations into donations:

www.ytbtravel.com/bridgesoutreach

Thanks Again! Enjoy and pass it on to others if you wish.

Switchfoot in Concert

2010-04-09T11:36:00.004-04:00

Our students have come to love Indiana Wesleyan University. IWU provides many unique experiences for our students, including their IGNITE conference. For the past couple years we have taken both middle school and high school students to this exciting one-night event at IWU. The conference has relevant speakers and stand-out bands. This year was no different. The highlight for our students was definitely hearing Switchfoot live in concert! They put on an amazing show and our students were able to be right up front in the mosh-pit. What teenager doesn't love that?!?! :)

Dare 2 Share

2010-04-09T11:11:00.004-04:00

March 19th-21st BTC (the high school group) took 6 students to Chicago for the Dare 2 Share Blaze Conference (dare2share.org). The weekend rocked our students' lives as they were challenged to not only think about what they believe, but how to better live out their faith amongst their friends. The students were challenged by dynamic, engaging speakers like Zane Black and Greg Stier to go into their schools and share "The Cause" for Christ with their friends. The students had an opportunity to do this while we were at the conference by calling/texting friends. We also rocked out with the band Starfield (http://www.starfieldonline.com/). One of our favorite parts was the two-part skit about heaven and hell...helping us realize that hell is not this fairyland place where people are simply separated from God for eternity, but where people literally are in excruciating torment and pain, while being separated from God for eternity. After the conference was over we spent the day Sunday downtown Chicago attending 2nd Presbyterian Church, eating at Gino's East Pizza, and shopping on Michigan Ave! Here are just a few pics of our fun-filled weekend!!!

Girls Afternoon Out

2010-04-09T10:57:00.004-04:00

What a blessing it has been to continue to pour into our students this year! We are always grateful for the opportunities we have to live life alongside the students with whom we work. One new opportunity the high school girls have had this year is to get to know each other during our "Girls Afternoon Out". Every couple weeks we get together to have fun and learn new things about each other. It's always low-key, but always a blast!

A dream is reached. . .

2010-03-10T11:14:00.002-05:00

When Bridges began at Central Middle School in January of 2005 we knew after a semester there that it would be beneficial to offer this opportunity to all four Kokomo Middle schools. That next year, Casey and Travis split up and we were able to duplicate the program at Bon Air. We dreamed of having Bridges in all four middle schools. Last year, through a grant with the Mayor’s Community-Based Council of Substance Abuse Prevention, we were able to expand into Lafayette Park for 9 weeks in the spring of 2009. This past school year (09-10) our dream was fulfilled as we were at Lafayette Park in the fall and Maple Crest in the spring. It has been a huge blessing to have the opportunity to work with every middle school student in Kokomo. Now when the middle schools consolidate into two next year, we will know all the students in both schools!

To Save A Life

2010-01-29T13:33:00.002-05:00

Some local youth pastors and Bridges Outreach did some work recently to bring a Christian movie to Kokomo. "To Save A Life" was the top movie in Kokomo the weekend it opened (it was in 7 cities throughout Indiana). It is a powerful movie that is extremely relevant to youth and adults. We highly recommend it to anybody 13 and older. Support this film as much as you can and encourage youth to see this positive movie.

Hangin' with Horses

2010-01-08T10:54:00.005-05:00

This past Fall 2009 two of our freshmen Bridges students had an amazing opportunity to learn all about horses. Helping Hearts Horse Ranch spent 8 weeks teaching Maria and Samantha how to care for the horses, saddle the horses, walk the horses, and even trot with the horses! The first day the girls were a little timid by the horses, but they quickly gained confidence!!! The girls had a wonderful experience and we are all very thankful to Jay & Pam from Helping Hearts Horse Ranch for volunteering their time to teach our students about horses. We are also very thankful to Juanita who volunteered every week to drive the students to the outskirts of Kokomo to the horse ranch. Here are some pictures of the girls' time out at the horse arena.

Busy Fall for Bridges To College

2010-01-01T16:47:00.016-05:00

Fall 2009 has been an extremely busy, yet fun semester for our high school students. We have outgrown our room at the YMCA and so we have added an extra session, with the freshmen meeting after school and the sophomores-seniors meeting in the evening. Here are some pictures of our students in our BTC room at the YMCA.

We started the semester off with a weekend retreat to Spring Hill Camp where the students had a chance to zipline, do the climbing wall, and other high ropes activities. The students were challenged with the theme of "Invent" to discover that God is the ultimate inventor of their lives and that they were also created to invent so they can more closely draw to God.

In October we took our Leadership Team to Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) for a leadership retreat where the students gained leadership experience and skills through the high ropes course and paintball. They were also challenged by the speaker to live the "DoKnowBe" way. "DoKnowBe" is about Doing as God commands, Knowing God deeply, and grow deeper in relationship with God and others by Being a follower of Him.

We have also enjoyed many other fun activities such as bowling, eating delicious food at our Fall party, a college visit to Purdue University, and a visit to Christmas at the Indianapolis Zoo. We also helped volunteer for the Girls Night Out 5K Run/Walk Fundraiser by passing out water to all the runners/walkers.

Community Blesses Bridges

2009-12-03T13:54:00.006-05:00

This fall, Bridges was extremely fortunate to have the community help our cause. A huge thank you to all who organized and participated in the following community events that helped support and provide awareness for Bridges: “Girls Night Out,” Bikers 4 Bridges, Beatles “Concert for a Cause” (Oakbrook Church) and the 1st Annual Joe Thatcher “Pitch in for Youth” Auction/Dinner.

Casey and Travis with Superstar Joe Thatcher

A Bridges student taking a ride at "Bikers 4 Bridges." Below is a picture of all 40 bikes that participated.

Casey & Travis racing at the "High Heel Shuffle" at Girls Night Out

Big Summer for Bridges

2009-08-07T10:53:00.002-04:00

We started our summer in Missouri at "Kids Across America"- U Know! Through a partnership with a local pastor we took our largest group to KAA. Eighteen students and three adults enjoyed the best week of our year. Our youth learned how to "Walk It Out." We had several youth make commitments to follow Jesus and start living by the Truth.

The majority of our summer was spent at "Summer Slam." This was our fourth year of this 5-week program (includes community service) and our theme was money management. We had over 30 youth learn about Biblical principals of saving, budgeting, giving, investing and spending money wisely. The youth also got to enjoy a trip to lake Manitou, an overnighter to Oakbrook Vally and a day trip to the Indianapolis Zoo.

Bridges high school students participated in a nine week Bible Study on sex and relationships. They were able to learn what the Bible says about these key issues.

We wrapped up our summer at SpringHill Camp where we had nine youth spend a week in Southern Indiana. Three students gave their lives to Christ for the first time and one even got to share her testimony at the closing ceremonies.

KAA-YOU KNOW!

2009-07-08T16:34:00.005-04:00

For the first time ever, Bridges left behind the van in Kokomo, Indiana and ventured out on a charter bus, where the kids (& staff) were able to sleep at least a little more than we would have on the van for the 12 hour ride to Missouri. What were we doing in Missouri? We were none other than heading back to one of our favorite places: Kids Across America Kamp! Our 8 days at kamp are some of our favorite days during the summer. We had a ton of new kids join us this year, and for the first time brought high school student to kamp as well!

2009 End of Year Awards

2009-07-06T09:20:00.010-04:00

Without even realizing it, the end of the year passed us by, and now the summer is already half over. Time has been flying by as Bridges Outreach has been extremely busy these past couple months with our end of the year awards, taking kids to camp, hosting a successful golf outing, and beginning Summer Slam.

The 2008-2009 school year has been a great success as we have served over 70 elementary students, 250 middle school students, and 50 high school students. This past Spring we extended our ministry to the kids at Lafayette Park Middle School. Next year we hope to reach out to Maple Crest as well, putting us in all 4 middle schools!

Here are some pictures from our End of Year Awards banquet.

BTC GOES TO WEST VIRGINIA & WASHINGTON D.C!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-17T12:17:00.022-04:00

Last week Bridges went on its first ever Spring Break Trip! Casey & Michelle took 7 of the high school BTC students out to West Virginia and Washington D.C. for a week full of fun, laughter, team building, exploration, and excitement! Meanwhile, Travis held down the fort back in Kokomo and had a chance to spend some more time with Lisa, Caleb, and the newest Taflinger addition, Micah.

We drove the well-traveled Bridges van through the night on Sunday to arrive by early Monday morning at the FLOC Outdoors Center in West Virginia where we stayed in their lodge all week long. Monday, after some of us took a short nap, we headed over to Harper's Ferry, WV to hang out in the beautiful, historic, civil war town. Tuesday, we spent the day at FLOC where Todd led us in a variety of team building activities including the "A-Frame" and "Trust Fall". Then, in the afternoon, just in time for the wind and snow we ventured out to the high ropes course where the students had a chance to conquer fears and work in partners to complete the course 40' in the air! The best part was jumping off the platform and zipping down the zipline!

Wednesday our students had a chance to ride the Metro (train for you non-city people) :) into DC for the first time! We spent the first day in D.C. visiting the Supreme Court Building, US Capitol, Library of Congress, and all the monuments & memorials. Thursday we drove into the city, which ended up being more of a hassle than we realized...let's just say it is NOT easy to find parking downtown D.C! Fortunately we managed to find free parking and merrily went on our way!
We spent Thursday checking out Obama's house (a.k.a The White House), visiting the Holocaust Museum, & enjoying the beautiful view from the Jefferson Monument. In the afternoon we headed over to the National Zoo where we did not see any tigers, BUT saw some cool pandas, seals, sting rays, & monkeys. Whew-we were exhausted after two full days of walking around D.C.

Finally, on our last day Friday we had a chance to give back to FLOC through a service project. FLOC sits on many acres of woods with trails that have been built in. We had an opportunity to help maintain the trails by raking away the leaves, and shoveling/digging in to create level paths. The students all worked extremely hard and all their hard work allowed FLOC to open up the trail for visitors!

Overall we had a blast, took lots of pics, played lots of Dutch Blitz, ate lots of s'mores, respected Mr. Commissioner Sir, & listened to Arquan & Duakeen's amazing singing abilities (especially when it comes to Disney songs from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"). We took tons of pictures, but here are just a few to give you an idea of what our week was like!

IGNITE Youth Rally

2009-03-24T11:29:00.000-04:00

Friday, March 13th our youth joined hundreds of other youth from around Indiana to experience Indiana Wesleyan University's IGNITE Youth Rally. This sold out event was well put together and included a variety of Christian bands from "Nevertheless" to "Connersvine" to "Pillar". We had a ton of fun listening to these high energy bands!! Most of our students enjoyed rocking out with Pillar, which was one of the great highlights of the night. Another highlight was getting to hear the speaker Darren Whitehead from Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Darren, who's originally from Australia, challenged the students to develop a deeper understanding of God's love for all them. He shared with the students how it doesn't matter how filthy you think you are on the inside or outside, God's arms are open wide waiting for us to just accept His love. Our students left challenged to think about their lives and how God cleans up the junk!

There's Nothing Like Nerf Wars!

2009-03-11T13:33:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, the BTC high school students ventured out to St. Luke's UMC to once again join their youth in an intense battle of Nerf Wars. Nerf Wars is a high-intense battle fought in the darkness of the church with nothing but protective goggles and a nerf gun. Running around, dodging bullets, leaping behind barriers is what Nerf Wars is all about. Check out the pictures below, which capture the intense preparations for battle!!!!

30 Hour Famine

2009-03-05T15:39:00.000-05:00

The 30 Hour Famine is an international event put on by World Vision to raise awareness about world hunger. To learn more about the 30 Hour Famine and how it's making a huge impact to feed starving people all over the world check out their website: http://www.30hourfamine.org/

Last weekend, our junior high and high school students partnered with the youth at First Church of God to participate in this event. To get even a minimal idea of what it's like to starve we took part in a fast for 30 hours. The fast allowed us to gain a glimpse into how difficult it is to not have food. Another part of the 30 Hour Famine included actually raising money to send to starving children. Bridges helped raise $425! Saturday, we had an opportunity to help out Kokomo Urban Outreach's local food pantry by going into local neighborhoods to collect canned food. After collecting food and the closing ceremony we broke the fast together with some delicious nachos and ice cream sundaes for dessert! Overall, it was a humbling but fun weekend for our students.

Beyond the serious side we also got to have a little fun! Here are some pics from the weekend...

BTC Survives The Winter!

2009-03-05T10:47:00.000-05:00

Despite the cold, crazy winter weather we've had in '08-'09, BTC has survived the winter storms! Although our ice skating trip had to be postponed due to a snowstorm, we've had a blast at some of our other events! In January we hooked up with St. Luke's Church for our 2nd NERF WARS!!!! We had 18 high school kids show up for a crazy night of nerf wars in the dark. The last weekend in January the guys had a guys night at Casey's place, playing video games and just hanging out, and the girls had a girls night at Michelle's, playing the Wii and watching a movie!

In February, the Taflinger's had us over to their house for a Winter/Valentine Party! As always, we had some amazingly delicious food! We played BTC's new favorite game: MAD GAB! Mad Gab always provides tons of laughs-if you've never played-you gotta try it!!! BTC joined up with the middle school students and headed out to Franklin, IN for a rollerskating party...check out these picks...on the way home, as you can see, everyone tired themselves out.

BTC had a busy weekend February 20th-22nd. It all started when the bands Vertical Focus, starring Tony Vent, and Connersvine, starring Hunter the punter from the Indy Colts, put on a show in the tiny town of Sweetser, IN. We took 7 students out to enjoy the concert. Sunday afternoon we headed down to Indy for the Pacers vs. Bulls game. Although we live in Indiana, most of us were chearing for the Bulls and were disappointed when they lost the game. Check out these pics from the concert and b-ball game!!!

8th Graders Go Tubing!!!

2009-01-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, January 23rd-24th, 10 of our 8th graders joined us for a tubing trip near Kalamazoo, MI! Everyone had a blast and we didn't even have any injuries, minus a couple bruises! For most of the students, it was their first time ever tubing and first visit to Michigan.

Friday night, we hung out at the hotel swimming, playing the Wii, and just hanging out. Saturday we got up early, enjoyed some delicious waffles from the hotel's breakfast bar, and made our way to Timber Ridge! Although we had to wait a couple hours until the tubing hill opened, we entertained ourselves with most of us playing Phrase 10. As soon as the tubing hill opened we were on it, quickly getting sprayed with snow as we raced each other down the hill!!! Here are a few pics from the trip! We'd love to hear your comments!

Bridges Christmas Bash

2009-01-19T17:14:00.001-05:00

This year marked our 4th Christmas Bash Party. We had a great turnout, giving presents to around 150 students and feeding close to 250 Bridges youth and families. Sorry we ran out of pizza. Here is what our students thought about the party:

BTC Christmas Party!!!

2009-01-15T11:22:00.000-05:00

Although Christmas is now long gone, and for many of us seems like forever ago, we wanted to post some pictures from our BTC Christmas Party. During the week of finals, our high school students got to enjoy two Christmas parties with us.

The first was an all Bridges Christmas Party where we were able to honor all of our middle school and high school students who had excellent attendance and academic achievement throughout first semester. We were also blessed by a donor from the community who made it possible for our students to receive a Christmas gift! It was a great evening where families were able to support their student's involvement in Bridges!

The next night our high schoolers brought the best white elephant gift they could find in hopes they might be able to exchange it for an even better gift during our white elephant gift exchange! We had a great time just hanging out, eating delicious food, decorating Christmas cookies, and playing games! Here are just a couple pics from that night.

After New Years, BTC picked up meeting again Monday, January 5th! We have a bunch of exciting things going on this semester. Be sure to join us every Monday & Wednesday night from 6:30-8:30 pm downtown at the YMCA!

BTC in November...

2008-11-28T12:23:00.000-05:00

The high school students have been busy this November. Earlier this month six students went on a college visit to Ball State University. Despite having to walk around campus in the dreary rain, everyone had a great time and learned a lot about the university. Each student that went is now one step closer to figuring out what school they want to go to and what they want to study!

Last weekend we had an early Thanksgiving celebration with some delicious ham, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. We hung out and played a new game many had never played before called Mad Gab. Everyone got the hang of it quickly and soon we were all laughing and having a great time!

The following morning we went from celebrating Thanksgiving to preparing for Christmas. We went to the We Care House to help set up and decorate their Christmas trees. The We Care House has over 100 Christmas trees throughout the house, which is open for the public to take tours through starting now until the end of December. Everyone had a great time decorating and helping the We Care House get ready for Christmas.

BTC FALL FEST!

2008-10-31T12:24:00.000-04:00

BTC enjoyed an eventful evening at the Taflinger's, who hosted this year's FALL FEST! Our high schoolers enjoyed some delicious italian home-cookin' and treats and got to paint their very own pumpkins! All the students were quite creative in their pumpkin-painting! Everyone also enjoyed a "spooky" wagonride (a.k.a. a hayride minus the hay) hosted by a local church. It was a blast-lots of laughs. Barack Obama made his second appearance at Bridges by taking a moment out of his busy campaign schedule to join one of the wagonrides!

October Trips

2008-10-29T13:54:00.001-04:00

This month our middle school students volunteered at the Heart Walk, went to the corn maze in Sharpsville, hung out at the "Underground" youth center, and went to The HYVE activity center at the YMCA. Here are some comments from our youth talking about our October events.

Highlight Video

2008-10-20T23:52:00.000-04:00

NERF WARS!!!

2008-10-13T13:51:00.000-04:00

Friday night, October 3rd, 10 BTC students entered St. Lukes Church prepared for a fierce battle. With all the lights out throughout the church Bridges & St. Lukes opened fire against one another in a huge nerf war! The church turned into a battle zone with nerf darts flying everywhere. Everyone had a blast and survived with minimal battle wounds despite some high powered nerf guns. There are a ton of thrilling stories; just ask any of our high schoolers who were there. If you weren't there you will not want to miss out on the next opportunity to join the battle at St. Lukes!

First Flight!

2008-09-23T10:30:00.000-04:00

Friday night, September 18th, 10 of our high school students took their first ever plane ride at the Glendale Airplane Festival! Despite the nerves about flying in a small 4-seater airplane, the students had a blast checking out Kokomo from high in the sky.

The Wave

2008-09-08T14:08:00.000-04:00

At least twice a semester Bridges goes to "The Wave" for our field trip. It is a community youth center open on the weekends. It is a ministry of Crossroads Church and our kids love it! Here is what our kids think about it:

SpringHill-Identified

2008-08-26T13:12:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Bridges took 5 "BTC" students on their first SpringHill Fall Retreat! The girls were living large in air conditioned cabins while the guys toughed it out in non-air conditioned cabins! Everyone had a great time and many of the students overcame some enormous fears, particularly the zipline! Besides the zipline, we had fun playing Z-ball, going down the water zipline, and walking through the prayer labyrinth. One of the favorite aspects of the weekend was listening to the speaker, Eric Timm.

God used Eric to transform our student's lives and draw them closer to God not only through his incredible stories, but also through his contemporary, awe-inspiring art. Our students were challenged to examine their lives to determine what they place their identity in and to see that Christ alone can fill the hole in their hearts. God lifted some major burdens off all our hearts last weekend!

Summer Slam (Student Led)

2008-07-08T15:42:00.000-04:00

This is our third year of Summer Slam and we decided to let our high school students be on the leadership team that would plan and implement the program. Here are our 4 student leaders. They have done an awesome job of leading and mentoring our middle school students.

Our theme this year focused on finding yourself, knowing your purpose, and career exploration. Casey and Travis have shared with them the ultimate purpose of knowing and serving Jesus Christ. From there, they have learned about relationships, teamwork, careers, and creative arts. In addition to learning we have taken the students on some great trips that include: swimming and tubing at Lake Manitou, bowling, an overnighter at "The Valley," and the new family center "Go Bananas." Next week we are reading and throwing a carnival for Kokomo Urban Outreach children, playing games with some folks at a nursing home and ending the summer with our traditional trip to Indiana Beach. Here are a couple of our students playing guitar hero.

KAA, U Know!!!

2008-06-11T15:46:00.000-04:00

Bridges just returned from another awesome trip to Kids Across America summer camps and we had a great time. This year we took 7 students, all of them were first timers except Marquise.
The students had the opportunity to experience some awesome activities. Most of them said their favorite activities were treetops, tubing and the pool. We spent the week getting krunk and hype for Jesus. We already can't wait for next year!

Reload Conference in Indianapolis

2008-04-29T14:18:00.000-04:00

At the end of April, Bridges took our high school students to an urban ministries conference called Reload. It was unbelievable! We learned about transforming our community, being relevant to youth of this generation, and how to make a true difference on a urban level. Pastor Harvey Carey, the picture above, was the keynote speaker and really challenged us to change the way we minister to youth. Worship was awesome and networking with urban leaders was very beneficial. Our youth talked the whole way home from Indianapolis about some of the ways we can improve Bridges. We highly recommend Reload!

Family Day at Indiana Wesleyan

2008-04-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

Last March, Bridges took our students and their families to Indiana Wesleyan for a fun day on campus. Students, volunteers and families from both middle school progams and our high school program saw "National Treasure 2" on campus, hung out in the game room and had pizza at Mario's. It was a great experience to get our kids on a college campus and provide an opportunity to spend a day with their families. Hopefully, in the next few years we will have a few students attending IWU.

30 Hour Famine

2008-02-18T14:20:00.000-05:00

Bridges had 26 students complete the 30 hour famine that raised money and awareness for World Hunger. Here is the Top Ten things about The Famine:

1-Witnessing teenagers not eating for 30 hours for World Vision

2-Playing Prison Dodgeball

3-Going to the YMCA friday night and hanging out in the HYVE

4-Playing Guitar Hero

5-Juice breaks every two hours

6-Playing sardines at Main Street United Methodist Church in the drak

7-Volunteering our Satudrday morning with Kokomo Urban Outreach, Howard Haven County Home & Angel Food Ministries

8-Our worship service on Saturday afternoon

9-Raising hundreds of dollars for World Vision ($1 a day feeds a child)

10-Breaking the fast with a feast (pizza & dirt pudding)

Raise money for Bridges online!

2008-01-29T12:58:00.000-05:00

We have a simple and easy way to raise money for Bridges! There is a search engine at www.goodsearch.com that lets viewers raise money for their favorite charity (the search engine is powered by yahoo and is very similiar to google). Just go to the website, put "bridges outreach" in the charity slot and start searching for what you need. You can also put the website as your homepage and you can shop online (3%-25% of your sales go to Bridges). Everytime you search for something part of the proceeds go to Bridges. Spread the word to others that you know and hopefully it will be one more way to help us invest in the youth of our community!!

Back to School!!!

2007-08-09T11:03:00.000-04:00

School is starting back up soon, but before it does we wanted to recap the awesome summer we had. Our summer got off to a great start with our annual trip to Kids Across America Kamps. We took 6 students and they all had an awesome time. After KAA, we went right into Summer Slam and started teaching the students about making healthy food choices and partnering that with exercise. We had a great time at Summer Slam and ended the program with some community service and a trip to Indiana Beach. Our summer concluded with a trip to SpringHill Camps with 18 of our Bridges students. The students had a great time and some awesome experiences at SpringHill. If you are a Bridges student and you participated in any of these activities leave us some comments what you thought about them.

Student comments on recent bridges events

2007-05-09T14:09:00.000-04:00

Students- take the opportunity to comment on some of our recent experiences the past few months. The 7 Project, Dare2Share in Chicago, North Beach, volunteering at Camp Tycony, or anything else you want to share about. Use as many details as possible!!

Student's Perspective on the Blog

2007-05-09T14:02:00.000-04:00

The Bridges "blog page" is going to be student focused. They will report their reactions to past field trips and Bridges events, communicate with each other and staff, and show off some off their talents. Please check it every once in a while to see how Bridges is looking from the student's perspective. The Bridges "news page" is where the staff will communicate our news to the community and all our supporters. Both pages will be used to keep people up-to-date with Bridges Outreach.

Winter Wonderland!!!

2007-02-14T17:13:00.000-05:00

Our city has been taken over by snow!!! The city of Kokomo is pretty much shut down for the second day in a row. School has been cancelled for the last two days, so obviously we haven't met with our students in two days either. We are leaving on Friday to head up to Michigan for a weekend retreat at SpringHill Camps with our high school students. Please pray that the weather cooperates for us. Please also pray that we have safe travels, snow could turn this 5 hour trip into a 7 or 8 hour nerve-racking trip. We know we'll have a great time and we'll tell you all about it when we return!

Earl, try to stay on the tube next time!

2007-02-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Bridges went on our annual ski trip with First Church of God. We went up north to Timber Ridge in Kalamazoo, MI. We got there Friday night and stayed the night at the Holidome. There we did some swimming, played some video games and some ordered some late night pizza. We also joined some other students to hear a message from Pastor Brad Johnson and a time of worship.
Altogether Bridges had 11 students go, 7 from Bon Air and 4 from Central. 1 of the 11 tried snowboarding and the other 10 went tubing. We had an awesome time doing everything! We didn't have any moments quite as funny as Israel taking out the orange safety fence at full speed last year and no one topped the smell of Jons' socks from two years ago, but we still had a great time!