Youths Design and Auction Art Chairs To Benefit Local Scholarships

Dayton, Nevada ? A joint summer project by teens from Central Lyon Youth Connection?s ?Take A Seat? program and the Comstock Youth Works program has resulted in the transformation of old chairs into functional works of art.

Show and Silent Auction:?The public is cordially invited to view the finished pieces at a Tuesday, August 4th show and silent auction at the Dayton Community Center at 170 Pike Street between 10am and 2pm. The students? have repaired and improved the chairs so that they are sturdy and functional, and they?re added design elements that inspire us to rethink the way we look at ordinary things. All proceeds will go to local youth scholarships.

One of the chairs transformed in a joint summer project by teens from Central Lyon Youth Works? ?Take a Seat? microbusiness and Comstock Youth Works job skills and academic success program.

?Take A Seat? is a Central Lyon Youth Connections (CLYC) program at Dayton High designed to market, design, re-imagine, re-purpose, re-invent, re-engineer and recycle chairs and benches. Project director Patty Sanborn explains that ?the Take a Seat project is not just about decorating existing chairs and benches; it is also about looking at seating in a new way. The finished pieces provide a unique way to bring works of art into our everyday lives.?

Comstock Youth Works (CYW) offers 50 teens from the Storey and Lyon regions a program that includes summer job internships; career exploration field trips; job skills training; coaching in academic success and scholarship and job searches/applications; leadership training; volunteer service projects; educational enrichment field trips; and more. The annual program is sponsored through Community Chest Inc, with funding through a federal Safe Schools Healthy Students grant through Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties (funding in previous years was through NevadaWorks). Staff from Healthy Communities, Central Lyon Youth Connections and Community Chest implement the program in the Fernley, Silver Springs, Dayton, and Virginia City areas.

Goals: Some of the goals of the summer project with ?Take a Seat? and CYW are to offer opportunities for youth to participate in meaningful volunteer work that benefits their community, to explore possible career paths such as business, art, sales, and design, and to learn practical skills with tools.

Donations: Many area groups and businesses, as well as individuals, have given donations of materials to make possible the summer project to benefit local youth scholarships. Some of those donors include Home Depot, FISH, Pizza Factory Dayton, Starbucks Dayton, Mill End Fabrics, Sutter Equipment, and Healthy Communities Coalition.

For more information about the show, contact Patty Sanborn at (775) 246-0320.