Winter fun: Tubing trip to Titus

On. Jan. 18, the Alcohol & Chemical Dependency Prevention Program took 32 Akwesasne youth to Titus Mountain to spend the day having some good clean fun snow-tubing. The Alcoholism Chemical Dependency Prevention Activities is designed to expose youth in Akwesasne to new, fun, challenging and cultural diverse activities. The goal is to increase, self-esteem, social skills, communication skills, team building skills, and to reduce the on-set of drug and alcohol use.

The group had a lot of fun both challenging the hill and learning many important skills.

“The best part was going down the green part and past the fence!” said Alex Oakes, referring to the fence that marks the end of the tubing hill. Another participant, Tatum LaFrance, describes the excitement that she had with a group of friends and family who jetting down the hill together and slid past the fence as “Awesome!”.

After a morning of tubing the group ate lunch inside the cafeteria cabin. They were one of the largest tubing groups there that day and everybody said that the youth were all very well behaved.

The trip was a cooperative effort between: Melerena Back, CPS Prevention Coordinator, her Prevention Program team Dana Henhawk, Megan Bushey, and Tiffany Leabo; the Let’s Get Healthy Program’s Nathan Thompson; Mental Health and Teen Women’s Health Melissa Conners-Chamberlan; and one helpful volunteer Sterling Back. Prevention Activities like this one are provided monthly during the school year.

Photos by Mary La France