GREENFIELD — To help connect students with resources to help them make friends, find part-time jobs, learn tips for studying and more, the Greenfield Public Library held its annual Back to School Fair on Tuesday.
“My job as teen librarian is really to connect youth with their community and show them that they belong here and there’s lots of resources here for them,” Teen Librarian Francesca Passiglia said. “There’s a very wide range of experts that can help teenagers with everything, from their college search to what they can do if a friend is vaping.”
Heather Warner, coordinator of the Hampshire Franklin Tobacco-Free Community Partnership at the Collaborative for Educational Services, shared that vapes are more popular among teens than any other tobacco product. Teens needing help to quit can find free, confidential quitting coaches and other resources at mylifemyquit.org.
Also advising students on how they can stay healthy throughout the year was Dr. Erin Trolley, a family medicine resident at Baystate Franklin Medical Center, who spoke about the impacts of energy drinks and how students can volunteer at the hospital.
“There are lots of volunteer opportunities at the hospital. I was seeing kids all summer volunteering, helping people move around the hospital and getting patients where they needed to go,” Trolley said.
Students looking for other ways to stay busy after the bell rings had plenty of other options to explore at the fair, including Artspace Community Arts Center, which was sharing information about its new teen after-school art program.
“We’re starting an after-school teen program on Thursdays. It’ll be a really chill, laid-back, drop-in situation, but each week we are going to have a led group project,” instructor Chloe Torri said. “It’s our first teen program. There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening in our new upstairs classroom.”
Maeve Noble, a rising senior at Stoneleigh-Burnham School, shared information on how students can register to vote. She also shared information about Community Conversations, a weekly program she started to get more young people involved in politics.
“Every Wednesday we meet from 4:15 to 5:15, and we discuss recent events, civic education, and we try to make engagement opportunities,” Noble said. “We founded a hotline for political positivity, so people can call in and hear voices from young people talking about positive things in their lives, to showcase to the world that there’s so much positivity and we shouldn’t feel so burdened by current events.”
Other organizations offering resources to students in attendance included The Brick House Community Resource Center of Turners Falls, the Greenfield Police Department, Greenfield Community College and Greenfield Community Television.
The resource fair also offered attendees free school supplies, such as binders and notebooks, sponsored by the Friends of the Greenfield Public Library. Passiglia said she hopes to expand the fair to multiple rooms in the library next year.
