By: Jen Hammons

Welcome back to school! The kids had a great summer and are excited to be back with their friends, one year and one grade wiser than last year. This school year is off to a terrific start, with clubs geared around student and counselor input. Our counselors like to play as much as our kids! In addition to our terrific returning staff, this year we've gained the enthusiasm and dedication of two new staff. Kiefer, our youngest, is still in high school but is thrilled to be here. Just a few years older than our oldest program participants, he provides a great role model, combining a love of fun with some serious dedication to his responsibilities. His addition to the team and energy during clubs is welcome and contagious.

One club that he helps with is Inner Child, a club based around jump ropes, hula hoops, and a parachute. This combination of fun and skill is right up his alley. If the weather is nice, we go outside and learn double dutch. It can be tricky trying to figure out how and when to jump in between two ropes, but what a great feeling once you figure it out! For those unbearably hot days, we take the parachute in the gym for a game of cat and mouse. Regardless of your age, it's hard to turn down the drawing power of that rhythmic cadence, complete with songs that get mysteriously passed down through generations. As a counselor with dj experience, Kiefer is perfect for the job. Who decided Cinderella was dressed in yellow to begin with? Sense or nonsense, it makes a great tune to jump to!

By: Jen Hammons

Thursdays are the best day ever; at least that's the opinion of about half the kids in the program. It's difficult to get them to focus on homework, and even dodgeball loses its appeal for some, as they instead pull out paper and pencil and design their face paint decal for the day. The kids, never a passive audience, really get into their creations, often teaming up to help each other out in topping last week's creations.

Many of the fifth graders have started helping with this club, thrilled to have their own "stall" where the younger kids come to have their faces transformed into superheroes, vampires, and a landing place for rainbows and butterflies. They take their jobs very seriously, often spending the week sketching out samples for the kids to choose from in case they haven't come up with an idea of their own. They've also been great at putting the paint away at the end of the day, and cleaning up the area. Younger siblings join in the fun at pick up, waiting patiently in line to be just like their big brother or sister, and leaving with a smile that's definitely not painted on.