ASAP

Thursday, January 17, 2013

This week has been quite full, most especially with getting the paperwork and website together for my After School Arts Program (for short, ASAP…aren’t we clever?). I was hired in November as director of a new arts-based after school program, and I can’t believe that after two months of planning, the applications are going out tomorrow!

The program will be open to kids from Kindergarten through 5th grade at one of the elementary schools in Pittsburg. The kids will go through art, drama, and music rotations (I’m working on getting some dance in there, my dancer friends!) with dreams of an end of the year program.

I’ve started to get emails from interested volunteers from the local university and everything seems to be coming together. It’s certainly been a learning experience for me to organize ASAP, and I’m sure there are many more things to learn before the program finishes in May. It’s really a blessing to be able to provide this program for the community and to give these kids the opportunity to express themselves through music, art, and drama. My life would have been entirely different had I not had those outlets. Plus, I’ve learned so much about the positive effects programs like this have on kids’ brains. The plastic changes in the brain that result from learning are absolutely amazing. Anyone want to read my master’s thesis? I’m only kind of kidding.

As a shameless shout out, if you want to learn more about the program I just finished the first updates on our website. Check us out. Volunteer. Send encouraging thoughts.