Lights On After School Events

On October 22^nd the Boys & Girls Clubs of Annapolis & Anne Arundel County hosted events at each of their clubs, joining over 7,500 local Lights On Afterschool events in communities throughout the country. The events were in celebration of a recent survey by America After 3PM which showed that 8.4 million children are now attending afterschool programs, up from 6.5 million in 2004. Maryland was one of only a handful of states to receive special recognition as a “State On The Move” seeing one of the most dramatic improvements in afterschool participation over the past five years. Maryland went from a 10 percent participation rate in 2004 to 17 percent in 2009! That’s well above the national average of 15 percent. Go Maryland!

Boys & Girls Club at Meade Village

The Meade Village Lights on After School theme “Floating to Success” featured an Ice Cream Social, Root Beer Float Party and the painting of beautiful lamps which symbolized Lights on After School. To kick off the festivities five groups of members, lead by junior staffers and volunteers, painted the bases of lamps which will remain on display throughout the club. At the suggestion of one of the members an ice cream sundae was painted on one of the lamps to symbolize the event. The lamp will be on display at the front desk of Meade Village for the entire month of November.   

Meade Village also had 42 members and 5 parent volunteers participate in the Ice Cream Social and Root Beer Float Party, and everyone enjoyed creating ice cream sundaes with a huge assortment of flavors and toppings.  While digesting the ice cream the club members wrote poems about why they enjoy ice cream so much. The program was such a success that Meade Village will adopt the Ice Cream Social theme as a once a month treat for members with outstanding attendance in their Power Hour program!

Boys & Girls Club at Freetown Village

The Boys & Girls Club at Freetown Village hosted a party themed “Ice Cream Around The World”. They played games from all different countries, and colored-in flags from all over the world. They then played a guessing game connecting world flags with ice cream toppings for an Ice Cream Sundae party.  Everybody made their own Ice Cream Sundae with 10 parents, 45 member, and 14 additional youth participating. Freetown wasn’t sure who was more excited about the Ice Cream Sundaes…the parents or the members! 

Boys & Girls Club at Bates