School’s out, we’re in

By Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula For the Sequim Gazette

Editor’s note: This is the first in a weekly column from the Boys &Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.

We have had a great start to summer with three weeks of the summer break flying by. Mornings commence with our morning camp, where participants pay a modest $15 a day or $65 a week for an action-packed morning, before free lunch and when the club opens to all members at noon at no charge.

The kids at the club are enjoying our typical program offerings and have created some new ones to keep them occupied over the summer and the expanded time at the club. They are liking the new comic strip sessions where they draw and write their own comic strips.

Members are participating in Play Ball, a baseball fitness program three afternoons a week getting them outside in the great weather we have been experiencing.

Our kids have been visiting parks and have a new program called Adopted A Park. On Mondays they go out and help with beautification projects. Our Master Gardener volunteers have taken their garden club participants on a few field trips including a history lesson at Pioneer Memorial Park and a “Spores” walk at Robin Hill Park.

Morning Camp

The Peninsula Unplugged — The Great Outdoors is where members spend a week in various Olympic Peninsula towns. The first week was exploring Sequim’s backyard picking strawberries, visiting local attractions including Port Williams beach and Washington Lavender Inn for a visit with Martha Washington.

They ventured to Port Angeles the second week with a trip to Webster’s Woods, Shane Park and a tour of the Coast Guard base.

This week our morning campers traveled to Port Townsend to visit the popular Fort Worden and its bunkers and the Marine Science Center. Kids experienced local marine and shoreline habitat, history, flora and fauna of the area.

Brain Gain

This summer Brain Gain is back in full swing! Now on our second week “Making Global Connections.”

The first module was an “Earth Savers” and the kids learned to become environmentally aware and make a difference. They went on a nature walk identifying plants and animals in their habitat and how different they can be. Each one provides the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other.

This week the members explored similarities and differences of their families’ traditions with those of others. They made the connection that even though people can come from other backgrounds, cultures and even countries, they are all connected.

Our kids discussed how clean water and world hunger were global problems and they worked out ways to solve it on a local level.

Junior Rangers

This Active Trails Program is now in its fourth summer and loved by all the participants. It is a community engagement program designed to positively impact parks, partners and participants.

Olympic National Park once again was awarded funding to bring youths from the Sequim and Port Angeles clubs in a series of recreational adventures in the parks. Rangers visited the club and held a kick-off meeting where all the kids were given basic rules and safety for their upcoming adventure weeks.

This week and the kids were off to the Elwha River. It was the first trip and the small group participated in a hike along the old Lake Aldwell led by a park ranger. The kids were able to point out anything interesting along the way and rangers shared about what they found. Of particular interest was the plant resembling horsetail and what they guessed were bones of elk.

Teens and Tweens

The middle and high school youth have an action-packed summer. The newly developed point system mirrors that of traditional home life. Kids help out around the club, participate in programs and earn points; once they accumulate enough they can go on the field trips of their choosing.

Most recently they tie-dyed shirts with room staff Tiffany Barnett and redeemed their points for a trip to Laurel Lanes with unit director Dave Miller and room/program leader Stephen Silliman. They were instrumental in a fundraiser with Fifth Avenue, as our teens got out and washed cars. They are raising funds this summer to make over their teen room.

Feeding the Future

The Summer Meals Program has launched and we are serving USDA-approved meals to all children under age 18.

In Sequim and Port Angeles we serve lunch from noon-1 p.m., not only at the Boys &Girls Club but in Sequim at Elk Creek Apartments, Mountain View Court Apartments and at Carrie Blake Park, and in Port Angeles at Dream Park, Shane Park, Evergreen Apartments and Jefferson Elementary and Port Angeles High School.

The program’s success is attributed to the community service model coordinated by program leaders. If it weren’t for community involvement, a program of this size, feeding free lunches to Sequim (and Port Angeles) children would not be obtainable.

Again this year, faith communities and civic organizations help us keep costs down and a nutritious meal available for those in need. Children are enjoying the lunches served and continue to come out for tasty wraps, pasta salads, chicken and a small prize in their lunch bags.

Contact Ryan Juel to volunteer to help. We need more volunteers, especially in Port Angeles because of the expanding sites we continue to offer.

Call 683-8095 or see www. bgc-op.org.

School’s out, we’re in
School’s out, we’re in
School’s out, we’re in
School’s out, we’re in
School’s out, we’re in