Wasco Kids' Club

My Kids’ Club has been in existence for an entire school year now, and we have been able to put on 7 programs. I was able to raise $1500 from around my community last year to start off this project. Each Kids’ Club, we spend an average of $2-300 including flyers, decorations, food, drinks, crafts, supplies, gifts for the kids to take home, developing photos, and anything else that may be necessary for the specific month. In order to promote this program, we have been very active in the community this year. I attend the Wasco Community Collaborative meetings on the second Thursday of each month to share and update community leaders on what we are doing in the community. Every month, we request approval for flyers through the elementary school district and distribute them to each of the four elementary schools around Wasco. We also built a float for the Wasco Rose Parade. The theme of last year’s Rose Festival was the Rhythm of the Roses which emphasized musicals. Since we target kids, the theme was music, and the focal point of the festival is Roses. We decided to build a Beauty of the Beast themed float. Two of our volunteers dressed up as Belle and the Beast while our kids sat on the float, and the other volunteers walked the parade as plates, cups, and silverware. We ended up taking first in the float category, and most importantly, this was a great way to promote the program within the community. We are currently being sponsored by the Wasco Recreation and Parks District which gives us a lot of credibility and a non-profit to work under for liability reasons. They provide us with a facility every month to use, but other than that, we are left to fund, run, and continue this program on our own. For the next year, I plan on continuing to run this program. My hope is that we will be able to hold a Kids’ Club every month during the next school year. This program runs solely because of my enthusiasm, passion, and perseverance. My fear is that when I leave to college, the program will dwindle and fade away. This would be extremely disappointing to me because I know how much of an impact it truly is making on the kids of my community. My plan this year is to train volunteers from younger grades of high school in the same enthusiasm and passion and stress the importance of it so that it will continue when I leave to college. I also plan on turning it into my own non-profit organization next summer so that it will have stability to sustain while I am away.