Back to the Future: Celebrating YC’s History and Legacy
Participants and volunteers traveled back in time to 1976 to discover Youth Challenge’s history and celebrate the people who helped shape it during the Back to the Future program!
The experience began with a tribute to founder Mary Sue Tanis, as the YC crew created a thank-you banner and watched a video highlighting the organization’s beginnings. They then played longball, a kickball-like game YC enjoyed in its early days.
Next, everyone contributed to a time capsule that will be opened in 50 years. For the time capsule, participants and volunteers imagined what YC—and they themselves— would be like in the future. Imaginations soared as everyone drew pictures of wheelchairs powered by jet fuel, YC having a space program, and even Youth Challenge becoming a national program in all 50 states!
The group also worked on a gold graduate chain for our golden anniversary! For this project, everyone reflected on how they could welcome alumni returning for the YC 50th Anniversary Reunion & Bash. They each made two gold chain links: on one, they wrote ways to welcome alumni returning for the reunion, and on the other, they wrote what they themselves are grateful for.
After the YC crew were done with their projects, they visited Mary Sue at her house and played classic YC games like shower ball (also known as clean the yard) and the parachute game. The group also played a Game Show game called Then and Now, in which teams had to guess the correct prices of items such as gas, milk, cars, and toys and games that were popular in the 1970s, such as Nerf balls, Atari, and Connect 4.
Participants and volunteers had a chance to ask Mary Sue questions like what the first-ever YC game she played was and what her favorite movie is. She ended the program by encouraging participants and volunteers to do what they love and find a way to use it to make the world a better place..
The Back to the Future program was a wonderful time to celebrate YC’s legacy and dream about what’s to come.
