Summer program welcomes kids

Yorkton's summer children and youth program has started again at the Gloria Hayden Community Centre.

The S-CAPE program (Summer Culture, Arts, and Physically Active Experiences) runs between July 4 and August 12, welcoming children ages 6 to 12.

"It's a lot of fun," says Nolan Auchstaetter, one of three summer students in charge of running the program. "We have lots of activities planned for the kids, and they enjoy it."

The program operates morning (8 to 12) and afternoon (1 to 5) sessions every weekday with supervised lunch hours in between.

S-CAPE is based around weekly themes: "How the West was Fun," "Hall of Famers," "Clowning Around," and others.

"So we'll usually do a game or an activity and a craft that's geared towards the theme for that week," explains Auchstaetter. "Then we'll just play games-whatever the kids want to do, pretty much."

Special guests are another big part of the sessions.

"We already had Dance Innovations come perform for us," says Sarah Michalishen, another summer programmer. "We have Tourism Yorkton coming for geocaching. We have a few Cardinal ball players coming. We have Sil Foo Kung Fu from Melville coming. We have a whole bunch lined up."

Between 40 and 60 kids each day have been attending the program so far this year.

The S-CAPE program runs at the Gloria Hayden Community Centre every day except Fridays, when special "water days" are held at Weinmaster Spray Park or the Gallagher Centre Water Park.

The program offers a wide variety of attendance options, ranging from a $3 half-day drop-in pass to a $100 full summer pass.

Registration for S-CAPE happens at the Gloria Hayden Community Centre: 786-1776.