Check out Lakes Center online auction

$100 donations can go a long way

Lakes Center for Youth & Families holds an online auction August 7 to August 10, where you can support a key local organization and bag a great deal on one of 100 items.

The auction has two ways to bid. For items valued at less than $100 you can just enter a bid of $100 and “buy it now” and if there’s an item that has an on-going bidding history if you are the high bid at the end (9 p.m. Aug. 10) you will win the item.

Lakes Center is a non-profit and anything you bid i excess of the printed value of the package or item is considered tax deductible.

The center is housed in Forest Lake but serves youth and families in Chisago County. The center provides for intervention, enrichment and counseling. There were 166 individuals served in 2022 through the counseling programs. Locally, Stacy and Wyoming had the most individuals in the programs, with 19 and 30 respectively. Forest Lake residents were the biggest concentration of participants, at 72. There were 2,446 sessions over the year.

In the intervention services, which often involved court-ordered participation in partnership with area schools and parents, the 2022 numbers include 64 total with Chisago County addresses.

Enrichment numbers involve mostly youth who take advantage of the “Youth First” school-based program, for those in grades four through six. Elementary schools are host sites and topics involve positive decision making skills with special visits from the police k-9 units and first responders among other community leaders.

There were 79 Chisago County kids who participated in total last year.

Lakes Center for Youth & Families (LC4YF.org) gets its funding from a variety of sources (see pie chart) with a portion dependent on fundraising like this.

The Board members (into 2025) include Brandon Thyen, Chisago County Sheriff; Neil Bauer, Wyoming Police Chief; Jim Gillach, Associate Principal Chisago Lakes; Renee Wagner, Xcel; Rick Peterson, Forest Lake Police Chief; LeeAnn Weight, VP Olson’s Sewer and Excavating; Kathy Lillis, Keriann Hallberg; Jim Schoppenhorst; Mike Aschenbrenner; Kelly Novak; Joe Kryschyshen; and others representing Forest Lake School District and Lakes International Language Academy.