Meet some teens in Swanton helping kids get connected to their community

On a side road in Swanton, sandwiched between Route 7 and a quarry, is a small, bright blue building that’s home to the town’s recreation commission.

And on a given day after school, you’ll find some teenagers hanging out and running activities for kids: arts and crafts, fishing, even a paranormal investigators group.

Having young people come up with programming for other young people is by design. It’s part of Swanton’s response to survey data showing that less than half of local high schoolers feel they matter to people.

Julia Tinganelli, 18, Aiden Conly, 14, and Carter Kutzner, 15, are among the teens leading the recreation commission’s camps, serving on a local youth council and running the food booth for Little League games.

They also volunteer to organize after-school gatherings, like an ongoing Super Smash Bros. tournament, a teen nutrition club, and the Dungeons and Dragons group that Carter started with a friend three years ago.

“Now we have around four or five kids coming every Friday, still playing the game,” he says.

Julia adds that they often bake cookies, and Aiden says there’s an ice rink they use during the winter.

And they just spend a lot of time together — and love to give each other a hard time.

“They’re all like, I’m gonna say younger siblings, but they’ll tell you otherwise,” Julia says.

“She yells at us a lot,” Aiden says as he and Carter giggle.

Spending their summers, school vacations and evenings helping the community is not necessarily what the teens see their peers doing.

“Not a lot of people I know my age specifically go volunteer unless they’re already a part of it,” Julia says.

Carter says it’s hard to know what other kids in school might think.

“I don’t come out and just go talk about it to people,” he says. “It’s just like, that part is just sticking out — you know, doing a good job.”

But Carter volunteers anyway, because: “It’s like, if I’m not gonna lead it, who else in the community would? You know?”

Julia, Aiden and Carter say they do see all their efforts making things better — for Swanton, and for youth like them.

“It’s definitely hard in the community for a young person to voice their opinion,” Julia says. “I think this is such a good spot for people to learn how.”

Aiden agrees that there are now more options for young people to share what they want. And he says he’s grown personally by being involved at the Swanton Recreation Commission.

“I got close with a lot more people and, like, I got to see their side of things, not just mine,” Aiden says.

Carter says what keeps him coming back is the relationships he’s built with other kids and counselors through the camps.

“So it’s kind of like I wouldn’t want to break those relationships,” he says. “Because it’s kind of what makes me get up in the morning, it’s just to see them.”