Sun Country Kids Club is a non-profit organization that provides programs for school-age children, grades one to six. The before and after school programs and day camp programs are currently up and running at Souris School and Haig School. The program promotes the welfare of youth through supervised programs that encourage physical activity, character, self reliance, good sportsmanship and respect among other youth.
"It's an affordable program for school-aged children," said Shannon Seitz, Executive Director of Sun Country Kids Club.
Before and after school programs are offered at both sites from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and from dismissal to 5:30 p.m. each school day. Members of the Club are also eligible for programming offered on Professional Development Days, school breaks and summer holidays - this includes those who don't attend Haig or Souris schools. Seitz said that even if a family needs to register a child to attend for just one PD day out of the year, they can.
"There is a membership application," said Seitz. "Parents can email us and we'll send it. We try to do paperless as much as possible, so we prefer email."
The best time for in-person questions or registration is Fridays between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Seitz noted that the Club will be attending the upcoming parent information nights at the schools.
Although the program is currently only being offered to students of Haig and Souris schools, Seitz said that there has been interest from parents with children in other schools.
"We want to make sure we have a quality program at the schools where we are offering it first," she said.
The before and after school program in Weyburn first came about when a group of seven individuals formed a Board of Directors and a not-for-profit organization. Seitz and her team did their research to produce the most co-operative strategy for combining a recreational program with child care.
"We looked at the needs of the community and spoke to other directors at different centres and they said school age is a problem they are having as well because their waiting lists are so long for pre-school and toddler. For a child care centre, that's a full time space that's available."
Seitz said that because the Kids Club exclusively serves school children, SCKC works hand in hand with the day care centres, where the focus is early learning.
"Being involved in the community and forming a partnership with different organizations is how we have managed to get to the point we are at in only one year," said Seitz. The SCKC was founded just last year on June 21, 2011 with funding from Sask Lotteries and Southeast Connections.
"All of this was formed by a lot of volunteer hours and a lot of people coming together and sharing ideas. We have a really strong board of directors," she said.
Seitz added that an AGM will soon be announced and that the SCKC is looking for new board members. Anyone interested can apply directly to the SCKC office or attend the AGM to learn more.
"We are looking for board members with experience with non-profit organizations," said Seitz. Since the Club is constantly fundraising, those with fundraising experience would be especially helpful on the board.
"I went to Saskatoon and I went to a lot of other before and after school programs and got a lot of resources from other communities," she said, adding that with Saskatoon schools being so much larger, it was just a feel for how to run the program. The Weyburn program has, of course, been customized to suit the needs of the community.
Seitz said she would like to see more children enrolled in the programs, especially at Souris.
"We have 79 children enrolled for SCKC programs right now and that's including the before and after school program and the day camp," said Seitz. "At Souris School right now we have nine and we'd like to have 15 at both Haig and Souris."
She noted that they do, however, see applications coming in every day.
The program is ideal for many families.
"We are very flexible with our program," she said. "If parents work shift work and they only need the 20 hours per month, they only have to pay for those hours. They don't have to pay for a full time spot."
Seitz said that the board wanted to have a quality after school program that was also affordable, so that parents will keep sending their children to an after school program rather than sending kids in grade three or four home by themselves.
There is something for everyone with the Kids Club.
"We follow the ratio and the guidelines from the Ministry of Education for a licensed centre, but, in our policy, we have 30 minutes of physical activity a day. We also encourage arts and crafts."
In fact, the Kids Club also got funding from ArtSmart, to have local artists work with the kids.
SCKC board members have been busy organizing the entertainment line-up for Weyburn Culture Days on September 29 and 30.
"It was working with a lot of different organizations," she said. "We want to get our name out there, to let people know that Sun Country Kids Club offers sports, culture and recreation."
