YMCA Chaplain Says 'I’m Going to Give a Free Car Away' at Life Skills Fair for Youth

Chaplain Mark Yeager of the YMCA of the Foothills spoke to the Crescenta Valley Town Council at its meeting Thursday and told them about a walk and life skills fair he is planning for teens in November. 

The event, which is planned to take place at the La Crescenta Library, will focus on inspiring the youth of the Crescenta Valley. After speaking for a few minutes and telling them about the event, he dropped a line that got everyone's attention. 

"Someone asked me, how am I going to get teenagers to show up on a Saturday to a walk? I’m going to give a free car away," Yeager said. 

To prove he wasn't joking, he pointed out that the YMCA had given a car away to a high school girl in the 90s at a similar event at Crescenta Valley High School. 

"A 15-year-old girl won the car. Her parents had to come pick it up," Yeager said. 

Yeager said any teen from 9th to 12th grade that participates in the event can enter a free raffle to win the car. 

The walk portion of the event will start at La Cañada City Hall and the YMCA of the Foothills, where the two groups will walk and meet at the La Crescenta Library in La Crescenta for the life skills fair. 

The organizations participating include the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Glendale Police Department, the CV Town Council, the La Cañada City Council, the Glendale Unified School District and the La Cañada Unified School District. 

"As you may have heard before in the past, it really takes a lot of different baskets of a lot of looks and shapes to really reach out to the different types of students in our community," Yeager said. "And parents, as hard as we often try, we still need assistance with our students to help facilitate a better quality of life for them, as well as maybe giving them resources that they may need as they approach challenging decisions in their lives."

The event, which is being funded by the YMCA, has been tentatively scheduled for Nov. 16 and will be finalized this week, Yeager said.