To ease the concerns of working parents whose seventh- or eighth-graders get a weeklong Thanksgiving break from school, The Bridge Teen Center in Orland Park will expand its hours next week and ramp-up activities to provide an entertaining safe haven.
The center’s program director, Anna Murzydlo, said “Middle School Crash Week” will return this year, starting with a 1 to 6 p.m. session Nov. 24. The center, 15555 S. 71st Court, normally is closed to students on Mondays.
“Rather than staying at home, we want them to feel like they have a place to come to,” Murzydlo said.
Students who aren’t already teen center members can sign up online by visiting www.thebridgeteencenter.org. Seventh- through 12th-graders must have a student membership on file to participate in activities.
Murzydlo said the staff will hold a brown bag lunch for seventh- and eighth-grade students only from 1 to 2 p.m. Nov. 24. The object is to allow seventh- and eighth-graders to have lunch with staff members “as a way to meet us and develop those relationships with adult role models in their lives,” Murzydlo said.
Although high school members are welcome during the 2 to 6 p.m. “hang out hours” Nov. 24, Murzydlo said, the Thanksgiving Side Dishes culinary class from 4:30 to 6 p.m. that day will be for seventh- and eighth-graders, and activities on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26 will be focused on the seventh- and eighth-graders’ interests.
The Duct Tape Wallets class, “a really popular craft at The Bridge,” Murzydlo said, will be taught by student Brenae Scott from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Nov. 25, and the second class of a two-week boxing program will follow from 4 to 6 p.m.
Movie day — open to seventh-and eighth-graders only — will be from 3 to 5:15 p.m. Nov. 26. The movie is “Divergent,” Murzydlo said.
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Murzydlo said The Bridge Teen Center works with the community to keep kids safe through programs such as Middle School Crash Week in November and High School Crash Week in December.
“That’s why The Bridge exists; that’s why we plan after-school programs,” Murzydlo said. “It’s that time after school or days off school where there are unsupervised hours when parents might still be at work that’s the most vulnerable time for a young person to make unhealthy decisions. So we offer an alternative to that.”
Oak Forest parent Melissa Gula-Wyszynski said three of her four children will attend “Middle School Crash Week” for the first time. Draey, 14; Hailey, 13; and Mason, 12, who attend Jack Hille Middle School in Oak Forest, have been attending activities at the center for about ninth months.
“They have phenomenal resources,” Gula-Wyszynski said of The Bridge.
Gula-Wyszynski said her fifth-grade son, Lucas, 11, “can’t wait to go” when he is old enough.
She said last year during Thanksgiving break, her children attended “an expensive program that was really geared for younger kids.” She said although it was a disappointment, her options were limited because she needed somewhere safe for them to go.
“The Bridge offers age-appropriate programs,” she said, adding that an added benefit is that “it doesn’t cost anything.”
“My kids are so excited,” she said. “(The Bridge is) just incredible.”
For more information or to sign up, visit www.thebridgeteencenter.org or call (708) 532-0500.