Youth
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Youth association offers opportunities beyond sports ORYA’s Teen Leadership Team offers skills training, leadership experience for high school students while providing activities for the community
(L to R) Leaders of Oak Ridge Youth Association’s Teen Leadership Team are Eric Stout, Andrew Komuves, Caitlyn Annunziato and Nick Gervasi, the program’s director.
by CHRIS BURRITT
at Northwest Guilford High School. As participation in the group waned, Gervasi and four classmates who are now seniors at the school – Eric Stout, Caitlyn Annunziato, Monica Rashkov and Elizabeth Degnon – have emerged as leaders. They’ve tapped friends and rebuilt the group to a core of about 15 youth. Last March, as Gervasi was preparing to graduate from high school, ORYA President Tom Collins asked him to take over as director of the program. Knowing that he planned to attend UNC-Greensboro and would remain close by, Gervasi eagerly accepted the opportunity to stay involved with the group.
OAK RIDGE – As a child, Nick Gervasi played on an Oak Ridge Youth Association (ORYA) baseball team. He’s still involved with the organization as a freshman at UNC-Greensboro, but not on any of its numerous sports teams. The 18-year-old Oak Ridge resident is director of ORYA’s Teen Leadership Team. The volunteer group serves two functions: helping high school students develop leadership skills while creating activities other than sports for young people.
“I had so much fun when I needed service hours,” he said. “I like to help out the kids who need it.” Gervasi’s involvement with ORYA’s baseball program as a youngster also motivated him.
“It’s such a good opportunity for those not involved in sports to make friends, to gain confidence in their ability to lead and to create good ideas for their community,” Gervasi said in an interview last week.
“As somebody who played sports for all of my under-teen years, I was friends with kids who didn’t like sports and they didn’t have much to do,” he said. “Having this option is an all-around amazing experience.”
A few days earlier, Oak Ridge Town Council members applauded Gervasi after his introduction by Randy Collins, ORYA’s community relations director.
Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO
“It’s not just sports; it’s about community,” Collins told the council, adding he hopes more youth will learn about the leadership program and sign up as volunteers and participants in its events. The activities in Oak Ridge Town Park range from 5K runs to summer camp to the Halloween Terror Trail
in October. The youth have also sponsored e-sports competitions for video gamers. Over the past three years, the events have raised more than $4,000 for cancer, nutritional food and other charitable causes, according to Gervasi. He began volunteering on the Teen Leadership Team as a way to earn service hours when he was a sophomore
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Gervasi appreciates that planning events taps his creativity. And it’s fun. As an example, last fall he and others organizing the Terror Trail in Oak Ridge Town Park created special effects which included a fake guillotine they built out of wood for one of the scenes. “I’ve always loved the creative aspect of having a job,” Gervasi said. “I’m not one to sit down in an office
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JAN. 20 - FEB. 2, 2022
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