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Lights On Afterschool Coming to [Your town/city/district]
On Thursday, October 18, 2007, hundreds of thousands of children across America will join parents, educators, and community, religious and business leaders to rally in support of the afterschool programs that keep kids safe, inspire academic achievement and help working families.
The [your town/city/district] Afterschool Program at [location program] will host the area's largest Lights On Afterschool rally, featuring several hundred former and current program participants, Mayor [your mayor], School Board Chair [your school board chair], and other education officials and community members. The event will feature music, science experiments, and other activities by students in the afterschool program.
The rally in support of afterschool programs will be one of more than 7,500 such events around the nation that day – the eighth annual Lights On Afterschool celebration, organized by the Afterschool Alliance. The 2007 Lights On Afterschool launches the 10th anniversary of the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative, which has made afterschool programs available to hundreds of thousands of children across the nation over the last decade. Still, funding has not kept up with demand and millions of children are children are alone and unsupervised each afternoon after the school days ends. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is Chair of Lights On Afterschool again this year.
Speakers in [your city/town] will call for expanding afterschool opportunities so that every child who needs a program has access to one, and discuss the harm that could result from budget cuts.
[your city/town/district] parents, concerned citizens, community groups, political leaders, health and social service agencies, business and religious groups are invited to join in the Lights On Afterschool rally, which will begin at 3:00 pm at [location of rally]. Admission is free, but visitors are required to check in at [location of check-in].
For more information, contact [your event’s contact person and telephone number]. Background on Lights On Afterschool and the Afterschool Alliance is available at www.afterschoolalliance.org.
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