Trinity Lutheran Church hosts local students in Open Youth Room

Contributed photo
New York Mills area youth recently gathered at Trinnity Lutheran Church in New York Mills as part of the Open Youth Room. Youth can gather to play cards, games, have snacks and more at the local church.

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

For the past few years, Trinity Lutheran Church of New York Mills has hosted Open Youth Room for area students in 7-12th grade. 

Jeff and Lorilee Krosch took on the roles of leaders last year after the church’s longtime Director of Christian Education, Gary Bach, announced his retirement last spring.

“I first got involved when Gary was set to retire,” said Lorilee Krosch. “He was looking for someone to take it over so that the kids would still have it. My husband and I were like ‘yeah, that’s something we can do.’ We worked with him for the 2022 year before he retired and now this year we’ve been on our own doing it.

“We thought it was a great thing for the kids to have, somewhere for them to go,” she continued. “A safe place for them to be after games. It’s open to all the kids in the community.”

The program runs during the school months and is usually held on Fridays after home games at the school. Though the Kroschs are there to provide structure and support, the activities are largely student-led, including a time for group devotions, a substantial snack, and then time for fun and games.

In the past, games have included four-square, board games, bingo with prizes, and new this year, was a corn hole tournament. This year, the program was even kicked off with a live band performance.

“They really enjoyed that,” said Krosch. “The excitement and energy that they bring is just really awesome. It’s crazy here and it’s loud, but the energy is just ‘wow,’” she laughed.

This year, a record turnout of local students filled the hallways of the church after a football game this season.

“One hundred forty-five was our last count and then we had a bunch of football players come in after that. They were just like ‘where’s the pizza’ and didn’t sign in,” lauged Krosch. “That was fine. We had actually run out of pizzas that night, we went through 35 of them, so when the football players came in, they just took tubs of potato salad. We weren’t quite expecting that many, that was our highest number.”

Krosch said that her records go back to 2018 and the numbers have steadily increased in the past five years.

“In 2019 and 2020 it was around 60-70,” she said. “It was 100 last year and then the record-breaking one was 145, so it’s been increasing as we go along.”

With the numbers increasing, Krosch has tested adding a younger age bracket as well.

“This year, we tried third through sixth grade Open Youth Room night too and that went over very well,” she said. “We’ll probably be looking at doing one of those in the fall and one in the spring probably.”

Interaction between the students are Krosch’s favorite part of being involved in the experience.

“Just seeing the kids interact with each other,” she said. “We have grades 7-12 and it doesn’t matter—the 12th graders will do activities with the seventh graders—just watching the youth be like ‘ok, now it’s time for devotions,’ and everybody goes and heads down there. It’s just amazing that they do that.”

Krosch finds the program important for students to provide a safe place for them to be after football games, a community of similar age groups, a safe place for their faith and something fun for them to participate in.

“It’s the only program like this that Mills has,” she said. “I am very glad we have the opportunity to provide this for the kids in the community. I think it’s a great thing and I’m glad so many kids take the opportunity to come by on a Friday night. You know, spend the time, even if it is just to chill out on a couch or whatever. We’re glad they’re here.”