Parks and Rec. propose new tween program
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

In a move to increase the summer opportunity for tweens in Westminster the Parks and Recreation Committee is proposing a new summer program during the afternoons.

The Committee met with Selectmen on Wednesday, Feb. 13, and received the board's support for the new program, which is being proposed as part of the FY09 town budget. The program would be a geared for children finishing the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

"We felt like after last year these kids need something to do during the summer," said Laura Delorey, the co-chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee. "There is no place for them to go. We want them to get outside."

The committee has not determined exactly what hours the tween program will run. Delorey said a length somewhere between two and three hours is being discussed.

"We want them to stay there. We don't want them want to leave," she said. "This is going to be a learning process for us."

The committee is going to work on planning age appropriate arts and craft projects, outdoor games and other activitities.

"We need to keep them entertained so they do want them to come," she said.

The summer recreation program provides free activities for those attending, including arts and crafts, KIDS RAD (a safety education and violence prevention program from the Police Department) and outdoor games.

The six-week program offered has run for children going into kindergarten through those finishing fifth grade.

The tween program would run the same six-weeks, which start after the week including July 4.

The summer recreation program is set up so that children are signed up on a day-to-day basis, and counselors sign each child in and out during the arrival and dismissal times, Delorey said.

"This is not a mandatory program," she said.

She did say once a child is checked that they cannot simply leave in the middle of the day. The Committee will be developing rules and guidelines for the tween program dismissal issues.

"We need to make sure these kids are here the entire time, that is difference between a second grader and an eighth grader," she said.

Delorey said the committee first started to discuss the tween program last spring but approached the Selectmen for funding too late in the year. This year showing them a budget, participation levels at the younger grades, and the earlier inclusion on the money in the budget "got a better reception."

The committee is requesting $9,000 for the program, which would include additional hours for the staff of counselors as well as new supplies.

The Selectmen did not object to the money being put into the operating budget of the town. But in an earlier meeting the Advisory Board suggested the money be placed in an article so voters could approve the new program on its own.