Thats right it's starting to get to that time of year! Sign-ups are starting and teams are forming. Lets not forget the many lessons kids learn and the vast amount of exercise they get from their participation in youth sports. Success at a young age isn't measured in the wins column, but in the amount of energy exerted and the many life lessons that come with both the wins and losses. While many of us are busy, and these times are trying, it is important to remember to take time to do something you enjoy. That said, there is much to enjoy about volunteering for your childrens youth sports organizations. Even a couple hours at the snack stand goes a long way in helping the overall welfare of the organization. Kids and parents alike have much to gain through participation in youth sports. You can meet great people who become lifetime friends. These people, through their volunteering, truly inspire and change lives. Get out and volunteer your time, you won't be disspoi

Shopping local has a big impact on the local economy and your neighbors wellfare. Being a primarily local business, we continue to rely on community support for most of our business. So enjoy shopping local and read the top five reasons below (from the NFIB): Support the country's leading job creators. Small businesses make up 99.7 percent of all U.S. employers. Over the past decade, small business net job creation fluctuated between 60 and 80 percent. In the most recent year with data (2003), employer firms with fewer than 500 employees created 1,990,326 net new jobs, whereas large firms with 500 or more employees shed 994,667 net jobs. Small-business owners are community leaders. Most small-business owners spend their entire year contributing to their communities – what a perfect time to show them how much they are appreciated. Eighty-three percent of the general public believes that local small-business owners contribute more to the betterment of their community. Ninety-one per

Websters definition of recognition 1.the action of recognizing : the state of being recognized: as a : acknowledgment ; especially : formal acknowledgment of the political existence of a government or nation b : knowledge or feeling that someone or something present has been encountered before 2 : special notice or attention Dan Bencsik of Bux-Mont Awards is a recognition expert striving to spread proper recognition in every way.

Finally we have the healthy habits of starting your kids in youth sports. This is the final benefit in the series. We hope that as you read these you offer to share your ideas. Thanks for reading, hopefully you got something out of it! Healthy habits. Because sports increase an awareness of one's body and how it responds to different stimuli and circumstances, sports help prevent drug and alcohol abuse. Most athletes value what their bodies can do and want to maintain those abilities. Being an athlete also gives kids an acceptable reason for telling their friends no to drugs, booze, and other high-risk, unhealthy behaviors. (Of course, not all athletes avoid drugs and alcohol.) Dan Bencsik, Bux-Mont Awards

Our continued look this week at the physical benefits of youth sports. Today we highlight Stress relief! Stress relief. Sports allow kids to clear their minds of academic and social pressures, to literally run off the tension that's accumulated in their muscles. In the words of one patient, "If you play really hard, you feel better because playing takes your mind off things that bother you, and afterwards you can concentrate better." Most doctors recognize the positive mental effect of physical exertion, even though we're not sure exactly why this is so. I know that my ability to study in college and medical school was greatly enhanced when I ran during the day, and I'm not the only athlete to find this true. Many athletes get better grades in-season (theories posit the discipline and the need to manage time, along with an increased ability to concentrate). During exams, Duke University opens its gyms twenty-four hours a day to provide stress relief for its stud

The continued benefits of youth sports continues as we look today at Mastery, that satisfying, enjoyable way to develop your kids talents!! Mastery. Sports give kids a satisfying, enjoyable way to develop their own talents: through personal effort they get good at something they're interested in. Doing something well makes them feel good about themselves, but equally important, it teaches them about the process of how to improve and work more effectively. Learning a skill-to dribble left-handed, say, or to execute an effective second serve-entails a recognition that practice is essential and that improvement is incremental. The process of repetition teaches the athlete how to master a move and also how to experiment with different approaches to improve a skill. The feedback in sports is usually immediate and visible-does the ball go into the basket?-so that the athlete can change or repeat what she's doing and figure out how to get better. Not only that, the whole process of

The following information was taken from The Benefits of Youth Sports Article by Jordan D. Metzl, M.D., Carol Shookhoff, Ph.D. We are going to highlight the physical benefits of your sports participation over the course of the next few posts. Any other ideas are welcome! Fitness. Kids who play sports develop general physical fitness in a way that's fun, and they establish lifelong habits for good health. This is particularly important at a time when obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions: the incidence of obesity has increased by more than 50 percent among America's children and teens since 1976 and continues to grow at a staggering rate! Dan Bencsik, Bux-Mont Awards