Summer Play – food for thought and learning for children at risk

The Cause

Summer Play - food for thought and learning for children at risk is a simple idea to provide a safe kid-friendly environment for neighborhood at-risk kids with wholesome food, fun and the opportunity to make new friends. During the summer, these children may be without adult supervision or direction for their daytime meals. We believe that every kid needs to have a summer to remember and we have some great ideas to make it happen.

The children will start their day with a healthy breakfast prepared by volunteers. Then, the children will enjoy physical exercise, games and creative play. We will have board games and art supplies for rainy days spent indoors in our multi-purpose hall. We have a large paved parking lot for some outdoor sports such as ball hockey, skipping, hopscotch, badminton and basketball. Nearby, we have a green space for picnics, soccer, reading and make-believe acting.

We will offer some important life skills learning, disguised as fun, to empower kids to make good decisions in the future for themselves and other siblings. Community volunteers will enrich the program with presentations on: home alone safety, nutrition, healthy choices and tips for babysitting younger siblings.

Lunch will also be a teaching opportunity because each child will learn to create a healthy take-home lunch using the nutritious food provided. We will help these children to have a summer vacation filled with wonderful memories of fun, new friends and good food.

We want these kids to remember the summer of 2015 with memories of people who care about other less fortunate people … especially little people.

We are a United Church community but have no religious component to the Summer Kid program and all faiths are welcome.

Who Will it Benefit?

The people who will benefit most from the Summer Play program are the young children from the nearby low-cost housing complex who may otherwise be hungry and lonely. Their families are struggling through adversity to provide the necessities of life. The children may be without adult supervision or direction for their daytime meals. They are at-risk and vulnerable. This is an opportunity to demonstrate our Calgary spirit to these children and to our volunteers.

The families will benefit because it will ease their daily burden and worry for their children while they are trying to earn a salary. The community overall will benefit because the kids will be connected and take pride in their own success. Our volunteers will benefit from the program because there is nothing more gratifying than helping someone else.

Field Law will benefit from a lasting legacy of providing for the most vulnerable in our community.