Steinbach Youth for Christ's 29th annual Festival of Friends Banquet was held on Thursday evening and was a hit according to the executive director. 

Rueben Singh says about 360 people attended the banquet and just over $37,000 was raised for YFC Steinbach. Singh adds many life-changing stories were shared at the banquet and he explains the types of issues that a lot of the youth who go to their centre deal with in their daily lives. 

"In particular with the young people that we work with, broken homes, single parent families with no stability because the parents don't have support systems and the youth don't have support systems, that can be a common factor. Drugs and alcohol are common addictions we see and those are numbing agents, there's pain in their lives and that's what numbs things."

Singh notes one positive, is that they see a lot of lives of youth turned around thanks to the tireless work of their YFC staff. 

"We talked about a number of situations where lives were turned around and things change. the drugs you have to keep aware of what types of drugs are out there, what they do and even how to recognize when someone is on them so there is a constant education that we have to keep doing. But it's about people and it's about relationship and in that sense people don't change. We all want community, we all want relationship and we all want to be a part of something."

He says Steinbach YFC is a place for youth to come feel loved, accepted and cared for no matter their walk of life.