Mid-winter feels endless when you don’t plan for ways to keep busy, so here’s a heads up for Redmond youth.
The Old Fire House (OFH) Teen Center, 16510 NE 79th St. in downtown Redmond, has a full slate of upcoming events to banish boredom. All are free or cheap.
• The OFH’s second annual Valentine’s Party and Food Bank Drive runs from 7-10 pm. Saturday, Feb. 13. Admission is two cans of food for Redmond’s Hopelink food bank. Entertainment will feature young women musicians from Redmond High School. Refreshments and card-making will be included, too.
• Redmond High School’s French Club is collaborating with the OFH for a Mardi Gras party from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16. Admission is free. Enjoy French food and music, make Mardi Gras masks, learn about French and French-American traditions and play board games in French.
• Celebrate Chinese New Year at the OFH from 7-10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20. Admission is free. Asian-American staff members and teens will present their families’ favorite foods and traditions and all are welcome to participate.
“It’s a great cultural sharing opportunity,” said Rana Shmait, program assistant at the OFH. “We have a teen lead on the event, Daniel Guo, 17, who also helped last year. He’s in charge of building our paper dragon puppet — it was over 20 feet long last year — and providing music, from traditional Chinese songs to current Chinese pop. Elaine Lin, 18, is designing the poster for the event and helping lead arts and crafts with a Chinese New Year theme. We also team up with RYPAC (Redmond Youth Partnership Advisory Committee) for this event.”
• Laugh On: A Comedy Night will be the OFH’s first comedy show, hosted by Redmond High School teacher Rob Noteboom, from 8-11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26. Admission is $7 and the stand-up comedy line-up includes Redmond’s own Matt Eisenmann, Gary McConahay, Max Smith-Holmes, Emma Thomson, Kyle Svancarek and more.
• The 425 Teen Film Festival, happening from 8-11 p.m. on Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6, costs $7 per night. Featured movies will be produced/directed by teens who live within the 425 area code. If you’d like to submit a film,
contact Rana Shmait for guidelines, at rshmait@redmond.gov.
