Author: Media

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Boredom Busters – Free Activities to Keep Busy at Home Anytime

Boredom Busters!

Activity Ideas to Keep Kids Busy at Home

Here are some links to lists of activities that kids and families can do at home for free to stay busy throughout the year.
Boredom Busters: 110 Fun At-Home Activities for Families & Kids
87 family activities to help you avoid coronavirus cabin fever
School’s cancelled—what now? Here are 200+ activities you can do with kids at home

Group Games & Activities

Here is a link to a site that has loads of directions for free activities that would be fun for adults or kids. Many of these activities can be used as team building exercises and could also be done in a video chat environment.
https://www.playmeo.com/

Free Online Yoga and Exercise Classes

Cosmic Kids YouTube Yoga Classes for Kids
GoNoodle: Movement and mindfulness videos GoNoodle.com
Free Online Toddler Frozen Dance Class
Fitness Blenders: Free 25-minute fitness videos for kids
Swordkit: Kid-friendly workouts (strength, agility, flexibility, balance, warm-ups and cool-downs, and more.

Virtual Field Trips

Here are links to some lists with resources to places that can be visited virtually through webcams and interactive online experiences.

40 Virtual Field Trips for Kids to Get Them Learning About the World
25+ Amazing Educational Virtual Field Trips—Spring 2020
Incredible things you will only see in Dubai

Virtual Experiences

Google Arts and Culture
Google Arts & Culture puts the treasures, stories and knowledge of over 2,000 cultural institutions from 80 countries at your fingertips.
https://artsandculture.google.com/

Art Selfie
Art Selfie is a playful way to discover art.
Install the app, take a selfie, and search thousands of artworks to see if any look like you
https://artsandculture.google.com/camera/selfie

Online Games

Drawing Games

Here are links to free multiplayer drawing and guessing games.

skribbl io
https://skribbl.io/
Drawasaurus
https://www.drawasaurus.org/
letsdraw.it
https://letsdraw.it/

Sites with Multiple Online Games

Here are links to free games that you can play online alone or with your friends like cards, scrabble and chess

Pogo.com
Playingcards.io

Free Video Games

Here are links to free video games that you can play online alone or with your friends

Steampowered.com

Resource Sites

Here are links to lists of online resources of online games and activities

Sheppard Software
Sheppard Software hosts hundreds of free, online, educational games for kids.

10 Free Online Educational Game Sites
Here are 10 game hubs that teachers and students can use for learning and fun.

 

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Activities to Keep Busy During the Holidays

Holiday Activity Ideas

It can be a challenge to come up with ideas to stay busy any time we are at home, even during the holidays. Here is a list of ideas resources of fun activities, online games and interactive ideas that can help keep boredom at bay.

Making Ornaments

Making ornaments is a fun way for families to get creative together during the holiday time without having to spend very much on supplies. Ornaments are a great way to give your home holiday cheer and they also can make great gifts! Here are a few links to sites that have great ideas for many different kinds of DIY ornaments.

Paper Christmas Decorations You Can Make at Home
53 Easy Handmade Christmas Ornaments to Start Making Now
Get Kids Crafting With These Easy Twig Ornaments
Simple Holiday DIY: 20+ Twig Christmas Ornaments to Make

 

Ginger Bread Houses out of Cookie or Cardboard


One fun activity that kids love to help make and eat is gingerbread houses. If you are feeling especially creative and have a lot of free time you can also make a giant gingerbread house out of cardboard to be a playhouse for the kids or a big decoration for your house. An easier idea is to make small cardboard gingerbread houses for decorations or ornaments. Here are some links on how to make all three!
Gingerbread House Recipe - good recipe for a cookie and candy Gingerbread house
DIY Paper Gingerbread House - a small gingerbread house that you can make with kids out of cardboard
How to Build a Life-Sized Gingerbread Playhouse - This project looks like it takes awhile but is a good idea. It could also be built with more recycled or homemade items
DIY Life-Size Gingerbread Playhouse from a Cardboard Box - This is a slightly more simple idea for a gingerbread playhouse

Other Holiday Activity Ideas


Here are some links to sites that have lists of fun holiday activities that you can do together with your family.
52 Fun Christmas Activities That Need to Be on Your Family's Holiday Bucket List
43 ways to make this year the best holiday season ever — even if money is tight
101 holiday activities for kids

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Virtual Pumpkin Carving Contest 2020! Carve Out Substance Misuse From Your Life!

#CarveOutDrugs

Congratulations to The #CarveOutDrugs Pumpkin Winners!

Winners can contact Maria Gonzalez, Coalition Coordinator at (575) 779-2260 to claim your prizes!

In the category of Most Scary #CarveOutDrugs Pumpkin we had two winners:
Pumpkin #1,  created by the Michael family and Pumpkin #10, created by Elias Quintana! Congratulations!

In the category of Cutest #CarveOutDrugs Pumpkin, Pumpkin #9 created by Esperanza Quintana is the winner! Congratulations!

In the category of Funniest #CarveOutDrugs Pumpkin, Pumpkin #5, created by Jude Martinez is the winner! Congratulations!

In the category of most creative #CarveOutDrugs Pumpkin, Pumpkin #5, created by Jude Martinez won again!!!! Congratulations!!!

In the category of Pumpkin with the best #CarveOutDrugs Message we had a big tie!
Pumpkins #11 created by Araceli Gonzalez & Maceon Martinez
Pumpkins #2 created by the Family of Kristi Gonzales
Pumpkins #3 and #4, created by Lita and Jesse Mead
Pumpkins #8, created by Faith & Lukas Cisneros
Pumpkins #6 & #7, created by Marlayna and Esperanza Vallejos
Congratulations!!!!

Thank you to everyone who participated helping to carve substance misuse out of our lives this Halloween!!!

#CarveOutDrugs Pumpkin Contestants!

#1

#2

#2
#2

#3

#4

#5

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

Thank you for participating and helping carve out substance misuse this Halloween! Have a happy and safe Halloween!

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Vida Auction

The Vida Auction has ended. Thank you to everyone who placed bids. If you need to pick up an item that you won please call Maria Gonzalez, Coalition Coordinator at, (575) 779-2260. If yours was not a winning bid, you can still make a donations to our Sober Sight Fundraising Campaign to help us raise the money we need to turn our location in Questa into a safe, fun place for the youth and the community in the Questa area. Click the purple donation button below. Thank you! Have safe and happy Holidays!

MAKE A DONATION
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Police Appreciation Luncheon – Honoring our Local Law Enforcement Officers.




On October 7, 2020 Vida Del Norte hosted an event where we sponsored a luncheon to honor and thank our local Law Enforcement Officers for the work and commitment they have to our communities.

Thank You Officers!

We also want to thank our local businesses, coalition and community members for helping to make this event a success. My Tia’s Cafe in Cerro provided the delicious food, Party On rentals from Questa provided the tents and chairs and Rael’s Coffee in Questa provided amazing coffee. The Coalition members, including the youth in Active8 helped decorate, set up and host the event and members of the community showed up to help us say thank you. This event was a great opportunity to engage with our law enforcement officers and our community in conversation about how substance misuse is effecting our youth. We would like to invite anyone who would like to continue this conversation or get involved with our coalition to visit us at our new office space at 62 Highway 38 in Questa.

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Class of 2020 Questa Senior Graduation Parade

On May 30th there was an honorary Parade for our 2020 Graduating class. This was a community event in collaboration with Questa Class of 2020 senior parents, Vida Del Norte Drug Free Coalition., The Village of Questa, Questa and Cerro EMS, Taos County Sheriffs office, Harvest Questa,Living Word Ministries and other community members. The Vida Del Norte Coalition wants to thank all that helped to make this event possible.

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March – June Edition

Congratulations Questa 2020 Senior Class!

 

On May 30th there was an honorary Parade for our 2020 Graduating class. When the idea transpired, Maria Gonzalez and Mary Flores began to lead the way to make this day possible. This was a community event in collaboration with Questa Class of 2020 senior parents, Vida Del Norte Drug Free Coalition, The Village of Questa, Questa and Cerro EMS, Taos County Sheriffs office, Harvest Questa,Living Word Ministries and other community members. The Vida Del Norte Coalition wants to thank all that helped to make this event possible.


The Vida Del Norte Coalition live streamed a video of this event on vidadelnorte.com and also on our website for those who could not make it out to see it in person.  Here are a few photos taken from that video. More of these photos and an edited version of the video stream can be viewed online on our website at vidadelnorte.com/2020-senior-album and also on our facebook and instagram pages (facebook.com/vidadelnortecoalition, instagram.com/vidadelnorte).





Active8 is staying busy this Spring!

 

The members of Active8 have been staying busy lending a helping hand in our community this spring.  They have been helping out at our local food bank and the other day they gave out close to 200 boxes of food! Also, some of the members of Active8 have been working as youth interns at the Questa Farmers Market. Here are some pictures of what they have been up to.

Active 8 has also conducted an environmental scan of our local alcohol establishments to determine the amount of alcohol advertising that the youth are seeing on a daily basis.


The scan showed us that a great number of alcohol logos and images are present on our main highway.  Of the three alcohol-selling businesses, one had 9 advertisements , another had 19, and the third had 11. One business owner told us that all of these signs, neon lights and banners are provided free by the alcohol companies. It's interesting that other companies are not nearly as "generous" with free advertising! 

We were pleased that we did not see alcohol advertising anywhere other than at these businesses.  The scan showed us that, as a culture, we have become desensitized to the extent that alcohol is present in our lives.
We know that our brains are not fully developed until age 25, including the part that helps us make good decisions. Drinking alcohol at any age affects our ability to assess risk and make good judgments.
  Alcohol marketers have made alcohol look glamorous, fun and entertaining. This gives out the message that we need alcohol to have fun.
Vida Del Norte's focus is to shift that mindset in our community.  Starting with the youth, we hope to re-sensitize our children and adults to the effects that all the alcohol messaging that our kids are receiving can have a negative effect their health and safety.  Vida Del Norte will be placing positive messages throughout the community that portray ways to have fun and enjoy life without alcohol or drugs.  We will also be working with the local establishments to address the amount of advertising that we see daily, creating a more positive community for each of us to enjoy.
Environmental Scan Article by Janie Corinne and Maria Gonzalez

 

Here are some photos that were taken  during this environmental scan of alcohol advertising around town.

 

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Questa Senior Graduation Parade Live Stream

Congratulations Questa Senior Class of 2020!


This video is from the livestream that happened On May 30th, 2020 of the honorary Parade for our 2020 Graduating class. When the idea for this parade transpired, Maria Gonzalez and Mary Flores began to lead the way to make this day possible. This was a community event in collaboration with Questa Class of 2020 senior parents, Vida Del Norte Drug Free Coalition, The Village of Questa, Questa and Cerro EMS, Taos County Sheriffs office, Harvest Questa,Living Word Ministries and other community members.

The Vida Del Norte Coalition wants to thank all that helped to make this event possible.

Vida Del Norte Coalition