Kids Take the Stage Amidst Summer School Cancellation
Slides and summers go together like peanut butter and jelly for most kids. However, Reach Potential Kids aimed at keeping students off the “summer slide” which describes what happens when young minds sit idle all summer. The potential for summer slide was especially high this summer when Mountain View Whisman schools decided to eliminate summer school due to state budget cuts.
Reach Potential Kids Director Christy Tonge put the word out to our network to look for affordable summer camps and programs for low income Mountain View kids, most of whom have no English exposure during the summer. In response, Reach Potential volunteer Michelle McCormick generously offered her calling as a Theater Instructor and had the vision to bring performing arts to the Castro school neighborhood. With a lot of collaboration in a very short time, a summer Theater Camp emerged!
The end result: 25 low income Castro fifth graders spent a week building self-esteem, confidence, problem solving skills, discipline and the importance of character through our Reach Theater Camp production of “Character Matters.”
To pull off Reach Theater Camp on short notice, we relied on many of our community partners in Mountain View. Castro Elementary provided classroom space and school office staff to call parents of English Learners to invite their kids to the Theater Camp. Open Door Church provided snacks, and nearby St. Paul’s Lutheran Church hosted the performance before all their family and friends.
The real highlight of the week was the transformation in the lives of eleven year olds who were given the stage for a week. For many it was their first taste of theatrical arts and Dr. Judy Crates, the Principal of Castro Elementary kept shaking her head at some of the tangible growth she saw in her students in just a week’s time.
Michelle and all our volunteers embodied our strategies of enlisting people to steward their time, talents and treasure towards the interests of others by empowering people to serve where their passions and influence converge in their community.
What’s YOUR passion?
Whether your passion is theatre or gardening, sports, music, technology, art, business, or ______________ (you fill in the blank), perhaps there may be an opportunity for you to join with some friends to empower kids or youth to reach their God-given potential this year or next summer. One thing is for certain, with school districts feeling the budget pinch, many educators and parents are searching for creative ideas to keep their kids off the summer slide.
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