Yaks Youth Center

🌈 Happy Pride Month from Yaks Youth Center! 🌈

This Pride Month, we celebrate the strength, courage, and individuality of LGBTQ+ youth in our community and beyond.

At Yaks Youth Center, we believe everyone deserves to be seen, respected, and valued for who they are. Pride is a time to honor the progress that has been made, recognize the work that still lies ahead, and uplift the voices of young people who are helping create a more inclusive future.

Whether you're exploring your identity, supporting a friend, or standing proudly in your truth, know that you belong here.

🏳️‍🌈 You are welcome.
💜 You are valued.
🌟 You are enough.

Join us this month as we celebrate diversity, foster connection, and continue building a community where every young person can thrive.

Happy Pride Month!

🌈✨

🇺🇸🎨✨ America 250th Kids Design Contest ✨🎨🇺🇸

Calling all young artists ages 0–12!
Crafted Hollow Mercantile is excited to launch our America 250th Design Contest to celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary with creativity, patriotism, and community spirit! 🇺🇸

We want to see your BEST patriotic artwork!

How to Enter

Create a design that:

✨ Includes the words “America 250th”
🖍️ Is either:
A digital drawing
OR
Hand-drawn using markers

🚫 Please do NOT include names on the artwork itself.

📧 Designs can be emailed to:[email protected]

📍 Or dropped off at the shop during business hours.

✅ Please include the child’s name and your contact information in the email or with the submission, just not on the drawing itself.

📅 All entries must be submitted by May 20th.

Voting Rounds:

All submitted designs will be displayed:
📍 In-store at Crafted Hollow Mercantile or
📱 On our page

Friends, family, and our community will get to vote for their favorite designs!

Round One Voting

May 21st – May 24th:
The TOP 4 designs with the most votes will advance to the next round!

Semi-Final Round
May 25th – May 28th:
The TOP 2 designs with the most votes will move on to the final round!

Final Round
May 29th – May 31st:
The final two designs will compete for the winning spot!

Grand Prize
🥇 The winning artwork will be professionally turned into:👕 Shirts☕ Cups🖤 Mugs

These special America 250th items will then be available for purchase at Crafted Hollow Mercantile!

Supporting a Great Cause
❤️ Proceeds from sales will benefit Operation At Ease.

Operation At Ease takes dogs from shelters, pairs them with deserving veterans and first responders, and provides a free guided training program for post-traumatic stress and mobility service dogs. In addition to the service dog training programs, they offer resources such as free therapy dog support, ensuring long-lasting assistance for both our country and community heroes.

https://operationatease.org

We cannot wait to see all the amazing patriotic artwork our community’s young artists create! 🇺🇸

3275 State Highway 205 Hartwick NY 13348

We are SO excited to share… 🎉

Yaks Youth Center has been named Business of the Month at Community Bank!! 💙

Even more special — our display features artwork created by our amazing kids of ALL ages, from our tiniest learners to our big school-agers. 🖍️✨ Every piece represents creativity, growth, and the joy of learning through play.

If you’re in the area, stop by the Southside branch in Oneonta and check it out — our kiddos would LOVE knowing their art is being seen and celebrated by the community! 🥹❤️

We are so proud of our Yaks family and so grateful for opportunities like this to showcase what makes our center so special.

👉 Be sure to snap a picture if you visit and tag us — we’d love to see!

🎨

📚✨ Community Event Alert! ✨📚

We’re excited to help spread the word about a fun and meaningful local event happening this weekend!

In celebration of International Reading Month, Gotham City Outpost is hosting a Children’s Read-Aloud Event on:

🗓 Saturday, April 11
⏰ 12 PM – 3 PM
📍 Southside Mall, Oneonta

This event is geared toward children ages 6–10 (grades 1–4), but all ages are welcome to join in the fun!

It’s a great opportunity to encourage a love of reading, connect with the community, and enjoy a cozy, story-filled afternoon 📖💛

Please help support local businesses and community programming by sharing and attending if you can!

A huge thank you to Valerie Secor for spending time with our Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 classes! 🌱🥒

Our students had so much fun learning all about cucumbers—from how they grow to what they need to thrive—and even got to plant their very own! It was such a hands-on and exciting way to explore the life of a cucumber.

This is just the beginning of our gardening program, and we can’t wait to keep learning more about where our food comes from and how it grows. Thank you again for helping us spark curiosity and a love for learning in our students! 💚

Check this out! The center received this email today, and we are beyond honored and excited!

Hello lovely folks at Yak’s Youth Center!

We are pleased to let you know that your business was both nominated and selected to be a recipient of one of this year’s Oneonta Inclusive Business Awards by students and employees from SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College. The OIBA acknowledges local businesses or organizations that have shown exemplary commitment to fostering inclusivity: providing exceptional service to diverse populations, treating customers with utmost respect and civility, and going above and beyond in meeting the needs of its diverse customers.

🌱 Growing More Than Just Plants at Yaks Youth Center 🌿

Our gardening program is all about helping children learn, explore, and grow—both in the garden and beyond 💚 From hands-on learning to building healthy habits, every seed we plant is a step toward something bigger.

Watching our kids experience those “I grew this!” moments is truly something special 🥹🍅

🌼 We’re currently building and growing our garden program—and we’d love your support!
If you or someone you know has any extra gardening supplies (seeds, soil, tools, planters, etc.), we would be so grateful for donations!

👉 Message us or stop by if you’d like to contribute or learn more!

🌱

🌸🐣 Happy Easter from YAKS Youth Center! 🐰🌷

Wishing all of our amazing youth, families, and community members a joyful and peaceful Easter filled with hope, happiness, and new beginnings. 💛

May your day be full of laughter, sweet treats, and time spent with the people who matter most. Thank you for being part of our YAKS family—we’re so grateful for each and every one of you!

🌼✨ Stay safe, have fun, and enjoy the holiday! ✨🌼

🍽️✨ Next Week’s Menu at YAKS Youth Center ✨🍽️

Here’s a look at what our kiddos will be enjoying for meals next week! 😋 We’re excited to provide a variety of tasty, balanced options to keep everyone happy, healthy, and energized throughout the day. 💛

We love making mealtime something our children look forward to! 😊