So how did Youth Week go?
This past Sunday was 2014’s Youth Week Calgary wrap-up event at the Deerfoot Meadows Tutti Frutti. Just like at the kick-off event (which Rebecca and Wentao attended on Easter Sunday), youth could pile an unlimited amount of froyo and toppings into “youth cups” for a flat rate of $4. This was only my second time ever having frozen yogurt and my first time at Tutti Frutti and I can confidently say that I was not disappointed by the froyo, but the turnout at the event was less than I had prepared for.
Upon arriving at the event, I was immediately surprised by how quiet it was. I was pretty much the first one to show up and after hanging around for over an hour, I could still count on both hands the amount of people who had come in to have their share of the frozen yogurt fun. This was surprising simply because being the Youth Week wrap-up, I had expected a better turnout.
All of the youth I had a chance to talk to were not aware that this was a Youth Week event prior to arriving. Only one even knew of Youth Week to begin with! That aside, there was still a general consensus; the frozen yogurt was great!
This brings me to my main point: Is Youth Week receiving enough exposure? With the added support of Virgin Radio Calgary and Funny 1060AM, Youth Week has definitely been more publicized than it has been in the past and there was a record number of events that Calgary’s young people have had the opportunity to participate in. However, this event in isolation, and I am sure that there were others, had a rather low attendance. Sure, the people who do come without prior knowledge of the event are pleasantly surprised, but I feel that that defeats the purpose of Youth Week, which from my view and the views of the patrons I talked to, is to get Calgary’s youth involved and engaged in what’s happening in the city. So was the lack of engagement I observed simply due to youth not wanting to come indulge in the creamy deliciousness of frozen yogurt or a shortfall in terms of Youth Week’s publicity?
However, upon talking to Tutti Frutti’s insightful and enthusiastic manager, I got a different point of view. She pointed out that Youth Week is still growing and has not yet reached its peak. That being said, Youth Central’s many initiatives are still developing Calgary’s youth into active citizens who have the power to make an impact on the city and the world. This success cannot really be judged by the success of Youth Week, simply because the people who want to get involved are already making an effort to become engaged in the community. It’s Youth Week’s job to try and get young people excited about getting involved our city, but it can only do its job as far as that. It’s our choice if we want to get involved or not.
So what do you think? Was Youth Week a success? I think it will come to grow bigger in the future and that for a rather young event, it had great success, even though what I got to see was perhaps less than I had initially expected. The success of an entire initiative cannot be gauged by one moment in time alone, but by how it grows over time and sees success in the long run.