Copa Kids Care keeping ‘Lights On’ after school

Copa Kids Care, Maricopa Unified School District’s before and after school program, commemorated the 10th anniversary of ‘Lights On Afterschool’ Thursday evening with a celebration that drew 200 people.

Director Inez Ramirez called the event “a fun, family night to bring awareness and promote safety. It’s also part of a national celebration of the Lights On Afterschool program.”

Families were treated to hot dogs, chips, drinks and ice cream. A play area was reserved for children. Face painting and a ‘gooey, gooey’ science project were offered, as well as a Mother Goose story corner and balloon art. Two children’s gift baskets and two bicycles were raffled off to four lucky winners.

The following sponsors helped make the event a success:

Fry’s: $100 gift card
Wal-Mart: two bikes (value $144.57)
McDonald’s: drinks
Card Corner: balloons
Water Boy: 300 cups of ice cream
Frito Lay: 300 individual small bags of chips
Maricopa Police Sgt. Stephen Judd
Jeri Eddington
John McGuire
Mary Millard
Volunteer Program
MUSD Food Services
MUSD Maintenance Department

Lights On Afterschool celebrations were held last week at more than 7,500 sites across the country and U.S. military bases around the world to rally for quality after school programs that keep kids safe and inspire them to learn. The Afterschool Alliance recently released survey information (America After 3PM: A Household Survey on Afterschool in America) indicating that despite an increase in the number of children attending after school programs in the last five years, more than a quarter of the nation’s children are on their own in the afternoons.

“But the sad truth is that too many children have no access to after school programs. Our new household survey reveals that more than 15 million kids in this country are unsupervised each afternoon after the school day ends. We need to do better and provide more programs that keep kids safe, inspire them to learn and help working families,” said Afterschool Alliance executive director Jodi Grant.

For more information on the MUSD before and after school program, call 520-568-5100, ext. 1011 or 1010.

Photos courtesy of Inez Ramirez and Michael K. Rich