Stories Archive

The CanTeen has affected my life in so many ways, we are like a family. The staff here are amazing and they actually take the time to get to know everyone. When you walk in, you are not judged, and we are all equal and that is how they treat you. I consider the CanTeen another home to me. Without it I don’t know what I will do the CanTeen cannot close. A lot of kids depend as well as me as an escape from everyday life and be with people that mean a lot to us. So please help the CanTeen.

Being a part of the CanTeen project in North Syracuse was a wonderful experienced as an adolescent. It gave me my first opportunity to have a voice and really feel like I was making a difference. The center allowed me to have a place to go when it seemed like no one else in the world could understand what it was like to be a teenager. I had friends there. Friends who did not judge me or criticize me but accepted me for who I was. Through these friends and the activities provided at the center I was able to finally feel connected to something. Looking back, I know the afternoons and weekends that were spent planning for the CanTeen, decorating, painting, re-arranging and just hanging our provided valuable lessons for adulthood. Thank you to everyone who made CanTeen possible and thank you to all of you who continue to make the center everything it is. It’s hard to believe 10years have come and gone, but I wish for many more decades of success and countless teens to find their own voice, whatever it may be.

The CanTeen means a safe place to hang with your friends after school. It means rainy camping trips to Selkirk Shores but no one cared it was raining because your friends and favorite mentors were there. It meant having an adult outside of home or school that you could trust and talk to. The CanTeen means a lot of things to me and as an adult. I’m glad it’s still a resource in the community for the generations after me!

The CanTeen was a great place for during my high school years. As an only child with admittedly minimal social hobbies outside of the home, the CanTeen gave me a safe place to go and have fun. It’s no secret that the Syracuse area has very few places to offer the teenage crowd an acceptable place to hang. I realized after leaving Syracuse that even adults don’t have a whole lot of options. (Where are you supposed to go, the mall, again?) I met a ton of people there, and I still know plenty of those people almost a decade later. And the adults there taught me plenty of things that still matter. Shout out to Toni’Lyn Grasso Brauchle for being the bomb!

The CanTeen means a place to go when you had nowhere else to go. To keep kids out of trouble, meet new people. It was a safe haven for everyone. I miss back then. It was so much fun and lots of activities to do as well. I’m glad that it’s still around for the other kids. Good Luck.

Since coming to the CanTeen, I have developed relationships with many different peers. I like the CanTeen because it is an escape from school and home. The CanTeen is my home away from home.

The relationships I’ve built at the CanTeen vary from love relationships to friendships. I would give anything to keep the relationships that I’ve made at the CanTeen. I really hope for these relationships continue over many more years. But most relationships I’ve made at the CanTeen are because people at the CanTeen are so accepting to people. I have lost a few friends by going to the CanTeen, but I’ve made more by going.

I have built a relationship with my girlfriend and some new friends. I am glad about this too.

I’ve built stronger relationships here with my closer friends, and I’ve built more relationships with people I didn’t even know before coming here.

I have built up friendships and created new ones. I have gotten to know Amy and Toni pretty well. They helped me open up and become less shy. They helped me to know I matter, and how to be comfortable being me. I’m glad we have the privilege to have something as great as the CanTeen.