On March 21, 2024, CYCG students donated 155 handmade blankets to Howard County General Hospital to spread warmth and care. This is CYCG's 4th annual blanket drive. Each blanket has one handmade encouragement card. HCGH told CYCG that they really appreciated the support from community and the handmade blanket and card kits were very thoughtful blessings. 

Collaborated with a famous local gardener club, Tian Garden, and Girl Scout, CYCG hosted an educational workshop at Howard County Central Library on March 2, 2024, to promote indoor Bokashi composting. Amanda demonstrated how to DIY the Bokashi Bucket and how to use it. Xili Luo, the leader of Tian Garden and a certified Master Gardener, demonstrated multiple seed starting techniques. over 100 local gardeners showed up and received the free Bokashi Buckets and happily shared seeds. 

On January 2, 2024, CYCG hosted the annual Award Ceremony. 13 students won the prestigious Presidents Volunteer Service Award in 2023. CYCG also received the Citation from The Maryland General Assembly for its outstanding dedication and invaluable contributions to community service in Howard County. MD State Delegate Dr. Chao Wu congratulated students for their achievements and also encouraged them to dream big.

On Dec 13, 2023, CYCG celebrated holiday with lovely seniors at Long Life Medial Adult Daycare Center with the collaboration of River Hill Volunteens. CYCG talented students performed dance, music ensemble, keyboard, and ribbon gymnastics. Students also handmade holiday greeting cards and shared thoughtful holiday gifts with seniors. 

On August 1, 2023, CYCG proudly participated the 2023 Howard County National Night Out Event, hosted by Howard County Police Department at Wilde Lake Middle School, 6pm to 9pm. Among 61 vendors, CYCG was the only student-led organization. 

CYCG's DIY Bokashi Buckets turned out to be the most popular giveaway booth in the event. Students distributed 90 DIY buckets with DIY water bottle inserts, 1 pound bags of Bokashi bran, and educational brochures. CYCG also hosted an upcycling booth to teach kids how to make paper bracelets. Both programs were sponsored by the Howard County Youth Engagement Program (YEP!). Residents visited the booth and learned about the easy and simple indoor composting method. The event went very successfully and CYCG received a lot of accomplishments for their efforts.

CYCG is thrilled to be selected as the winner of the 2023 Howard County Youth Engagement Program (YEP!) Grant. The YEP! Grant promotes youth activities and engagement in Howard County through free, accessible, and supportive programming developed by nonprofit and community organizations.

CYCG will run its innovative EnvSmart Project to promote environmental sustainability, composting, and upcycling. CYCG students will make, distribute, and educate HoCo residents how to use our FREE DIY Bokashi Buckets--worth about $70 on Amazon--for easy, green indoor composting. They also plan to run a 6-week free summer upcycling art camp. Please tune for more details.

April 22 was the Earth Day! Some CYCG students celebrated the Earth Day by picking up trash in River Hill High School fields and playground. They have arranged multiple local trashing picking events when weather is allowed. 

CYCG was honored with the Certificate of Appreciation by the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) Board of Education as one of the 2023 Friend of Education honorees.

This award was created in 2001. It recognizes individuals, businesses, or organizations for innovative or unique volunteer contributions that are significant in scope and that support the school system’s mission of excellence in teaching and learning through advocacy or direct work with students. The Howard County Board of Education has established the Friends of Education Award to recognize and show appreciation to those who have made exemplary contributions.

CYCG was recognized for its innovative Teacher Care Kits initiative in which CYCG handmade 1700+ school themed COVID face mask kits to 64 HCPSS schools in 2021, and HCPSS Strong initiative, in which CYCG handmade 1000 Pencil bag Kits to HCPSS teachers, staff, and bus drivers in 2022. CYCG empowers students by hosting various creative service programs. CYCG is the first-ever student group who got recognized for this award in its 23 years. CYCG student Amanda Wang was nominated for the 2022 Friend of Education award for her extradentary leadership and community service during the pandemic. 

More than 21,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured by the powerful earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday, Feb 6.  
 
CYCG quickly took action to support people impacted by the earthquake. They decided to donate newly handmade DIY blankets to Turkey. CYCG has already handmade and donated another 140 blankets to local hospitals and homeless shelters this winter. CYCG immediately set up 4 collection sites (3 in Clarksville and one in Ellicott City) to collect winter clothes, tents, sleeping bags, and OTC medicines from the community. CYCG received overwhelming support from the community, and many students volunteered to help. 
 
On Feb 10 and Feb 11, CYCG proudly donated 123 brand-new blankets with student-designed encouraging cards and 1000+ winter clothes. The in-kind donation will be sent to Turkey through Turkish Airlines over the weekend.
 
CYCG stopped donation collection since the Turkish embassy won’t accept winter clothes anymore.

CYCG Winter Blanket Drive went successfully. With CYCG making more impact in local communities, 20 more students joined this program recently. 
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On January 16, 2023, 50 more blankets were donated to Humanim, a nonprofit organization in Columbia who has 50 years of history to supporting and empowering the individual. Thanks to Michael Shi for coordinating this donation. So far, CYCG has donated 250+ blankets for homeless shelters, Children's House and hospitals. Volunteer students are still working on another 2 donations.