Starry Night Success: Supporting Connection for Blaine County Teens

Star gazing for Teen Connection.

As part of the Blaine Mental Well-being Initiative, several partners including the Youth Collaborative, St. Luke’s Community Health, and Communities for Youth Blaine County, are focusing on ways to promote meaningful youth connection. The new Teen-Led Events Grant Program, which offers grants of up to $3000/per event, aims to empower teens to create the kinds of connection opportunities they want to see in our community.  

The first event, held on July 21st, 2025 at Sage International School, was an absolute success! Organized by recent graduate Sarah Leidecker, the stargazing event was designed to create a low-pressure, relaxed environment where students could unwind and connect. Astronomers Kristin Fletcher and Tim Frazier were present as well as telescopes for stargazing. 

Around 50 teens attended the event, with friend groups from different schools mingling, playing games and building connection to peers and community. This successful night showed the value of giving teens the space and leadership opportunities to build community in ways that meet their needs and preferences.

Blaine County teens with ideas for launching their own teen-focused events are invited to apply for the Teen-Led Events Grant Program. Applications for the program will be accepted throughout the year and the Mental Well-being Initiative along with its youth-focused prevention partners hope it will continue to fund creative ideas from local youth that help build youth social connection. These types of opportunities are especially important given the most recent Blaine County Youth Well-being Survey data showed that a lacking youth social connection and high levels of stress as some of the leading drivers of youth well-being challenges among local youth.

If you want to learn more about the work happening though Communities for Youth Blaine County or more generally through the Blaine County Mental Well-Being Initiative, reach out to community lead Sarah Seppa at seppas@slhs.org or please visit our main page or sign up for our newsletter.