Weekly Media Roundup  April 29, 2015

Save the Children Leads Charge to Protect Kids (Newport Plain Talk, Tennessee)

Each day, 68 million children are away from their parents in school or child care, and yet less than half of American families have an emergency plan or a way to reunite if a disaster were to occur. To fill this gap, Save the Children made disaster preparedness a priority at their Edgemont afterschool program through the Get Ready Get Safe Prep Rally last week. Throughout the week, students learned how they can help their families prepare for emergencies through practical lessons and discussions paired with fun and engaging activities, like the Disaster Supplies Relay Race and Emergency Mad Libs. A Family Night was held at the end of the week, where children shared what they had learned with their parents. “The Prep Rally program makes disasters less scary by giving children the tools they need to prepare and be ready,” afterschool teacher Crystal Chambers told Newport Plain Talk.

A New Twist on the Old Lemonade Stand (Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico)

An afterschool program is using the age-old lemonade stand concept to teach kids how to start and run a business, according to the Albuquerque Journal. About 250 kids from Albuquerque elementary schools will set up dozens of lemonade stands throughout the city on Lemonade Day, May 2. The Rio Grande Collaborative, which runs the Albuquerque branch of the national program, provides students the entrepreneurial curriculum, and then it’s up to the kids to find an investor – usually their parents – and use the money to buy ingredients, make the lemonade and run their sales stand. Kids have to keep track of all their expenses and pay back their investors, just like in the real business world.

Dormont After-School Program Blends Art, Movement (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania)

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the nonprofit Art Expression Inc. have teamed up to create an afterschool program focused on the intersection of visual arts, rhythm and movement. Each session of the free six-week program, called “ARTS in Motion,” combines music, dance and visual arts in activities that share a common theme. In a recent session, students made a collage about their feelings then acted out those feelings to a drum beat. The program aims to increase students’ self-esteem, enhance their social skills and improve their self-expression abilities. “We think the combination of what Art Expression can bring in terms of emotional well-being and what we (Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre) can bring in terms of physical well-being is really exciting,” PBT manager of community programs Lisa Auel told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

City May Restore Rec Center Hours (San Diego Union-Tribune, California)

San Diego’s neighborhood recreation centers saw their hours cut significantly between 2003 and 2012, but under Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s new budget proposal, many of those hours may be restored. The budget would increase the weekly hours of the city’s 16 busiest recreation centers from 45 to 60. The rec centers are a hub of activity – hosting youth sports leagues, enrichment classes for preschoolers and senior fitness classes – but many supporters believe the centers’ afterschool programs are what really make a difference. “Recreation centers are particularly important in communities where there aren’t Boys & Girls Clubs and families can’t afford things like YMCAs,” Councilman David Alvarez told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Our rec centers are really the only place for young people to be active during after-school hours and have a safe place to play.”