Local teens are invited to join The Place Teen Program Coordinator Julie Dealing at Rogers Environmental Education Center on Thursday, February 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the "Let's Go Hiking" program. The event is free to attend, and teens will be led on an approximately one-and-a-half hour hike by a member of Rogers staff, followed by lunch and some time to explore the Rogers Center. (Photo by Dustin Genter of 5th Dimension Photography)

SHERBURNE — Local youth organization The Place will be holding a free teen program on Thursday, February 23 called "Let's Go Hiking."

Teens and The Place Teen Program Coordinator Julie Dealing will meet at Rogers Environmental Education Center, located at 2721 State Route 80 in Sherburne, at 10 a.m. for an approximately hour-and-a-half hike with Rogers staff.

Participating teens are encouraged to bring a bagged lunch to eat after the hike. After lunch, teens will have until 2 p.m. to explore the Rogers Visitor Center and grounds.

The program is open to Chenango County teens aged 13 to 19, and pre-registration is required to attend. Registration forms can be found at forms.gle/21zAYiBYMYnqSYr49.

This is the first time Dealing has coordinated a hiking program since she began her position as teen program coordinator, but it's something she said she wants to do more of with local teenagers.

"I think once the warmer weather starts coming back, I think it’s something that I’m going to try to do more of, whether that be at Rogers or at the stone quarry," said Dealing. "A lot of the feedback I’m getting from some of these teens ... they really want to be outside and hanging out, playing sports, doing things like that. So I really want to try to do more events where we're out in the community and we're outside and we’re doing more of that type of event."

She said getting feedback from participants in The Place's teen programs shows her what the area's teenagers are interested in doing, so that she can then tailor the programs to fit what they want to do.

At The Place's recent Teen Valentine's Day Party, Dealing said she made a point to ask attendees what types of programs they'd like to see in the future.

"I could kind of tell that some of the activities I had planned they weren’t super into. They were participating, but like halfway through you could tell they were kind of done," Dealing explained. "So I just straight up asked them, what do you want to do in the future, for you to come back? And they seemed really surprised that I even asked them that question. But you could also tell that they were really excited to be heard, and for an opportunity for them to create something that they want to do I think really made them excited for that."

Several teens expressed an interest in playing basketball, so Dealing said creating a program where local teens can play basketball together is something she's looking into. She hopes providing programs based on what participants want will not only give them something fun to do, but also entice them to attend educational workshops at The Place as well.

"I think just giving the teens an opportunity to say, okay, this is what I want to do, and then being able to provide that to them also helps them get into some of the more educational stuff that maybe they don’t necessarily want to do, but because they’ve built like this relationship with other attendees and everything, all the other events kind of start to pique more interest," she said.

This week The Place will also be hosting a Teen Money Management program with Sidney Federal Credit Union Educational Coordinator Elise Glassett, who will teach participants tools to be financially successful. The program is free for teens and will be from 6 to 7 p.m. on Friday, February 24 at The Place, located at 22 East Main Street in Norwich. Registration information can be found on The Place Facebook page.

On Monday, March 6, The Place will hold their monthly Teen Group Meeting with visitor Haley Palmer from Reality Check, who will be teaching attendees about substance use. The following month Tobacco Free Chenango Coordinator Brad Morrison will visit The Place for the April Teen Group Meeting as well, and teach attending teens about tobacco and nicotine use.

For more information on The Place, visit ThePlaceNorwich.com or The Place Facebook page. For more information on The Place's Teen Programs contact Dealing at 607-336-9696 ext. 109 or via email at teenprogram@theplacenorwich.com.