[your city] – Hundreds of children, parents, business and community leaders came together today at a Lights On Afterschool rally at [name of school / location of event] to celebrate the achievements of afterschool students and draw attention to the need for more afterschool programs to serve the millions of children nationwide who are unsupervised and at risk each weekday afternoon.  The gathering was one of 7,500 such events across the nation emphasizing the importance of keeping the lights on and the doors open for afterschool programs. Speakers at the rally warned that tight budgets are endangering afterschool programs here in [your city] and around the country, forcing many to cut back or even close their doors. As at other Lights On Afterschool rallies across the nation, [your city] afterschool supporters urged lawmakers not to deny or divert funding needed for afterschool programs.

 

[Add event specifics, similar to the following]:  [your city] Lights On Afterschool participants saw students conduct scientific experiments, display art and perform music, while [insert names of any leaders in attendance, such as your mayor, school officials, business leaders], parents and students discussed the importance of afterschool programs. This year marked the 13th annual Lights On Afterschool, sponsored by the Afterschool Alliance.  More than a million Americans took part in the nationwide rally to support afterschool programs.

 

[Add here a quote from a notable participant, similar to the following]: "Lights On Afterschool celebrates the skills students learn at our afterschool programs,” [Name of notable] told the crowd. “It is a powerful reminder that afterschool programs keep children safe, inspire them to learn, and relieve working parents of worries about how their children spend their afternoons. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough afterschool programs, and too many kids are unsupervised and exposed to crime or other risks each afternoon. We need to open more programs and protect the programs we have. I am personally committed to doing all I can to ensure that, in the very near future, every [your city] child who needs an afterschool program has one.”

 

[Add specifics about your afterschool program, similar to the following]:  The [your city] Afterschool Program opened in 1999 with a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant from the U.S. Department of Education. It now serves 250 children, providing homework assistance, mentoring, tutoring, and classes and clubs in sports, recreation, mathematics, chess, and dozens of other subjects. The program is a collaboration of the school system, YMCA, Museum of Arts and Sciences and three local colleges.

 

 

A significant body of research demonstrates that students who attend afterschool programs regularly are more likely to improve their grades, tests scores and overall academic behavior. More than 15 million school-age children – more than one in four kids in the United States – are unsupervised after the school day ends. The parents of 18 million children say they would enroll their kids in afterschool programs – if programs were available. In [your state], [click to find number for your state] percent of school-age children are in afterschool programs, while [click to find number for your state] percent are unsupervised in the afternoons.  For more survey results, visit http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM.cfm.

 

For the seventh year in a row, the Empire State Building was bathed in yellow light in support of the nationwide Lights On Afterschool rally, along with local landmarks around the nation, among them 17 winners of the "Light Up a Landmark" contest sponsored by jcpenney.

 

More information on the Afterschool Alliance and Lights On Afterschool is available at www.afterschoolalliance.org.

 

[Add a two-sentence description of your program with the url]

 

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