America Will Rally for Afterschool This Week

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tempe, Arizona's Kid Zone Enrichment program will host more than 2,500 people at its fifth annual "glow party." At the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, students will showcase a day in the life of an afterschool student. The Indiana Afterschool Network will host a rally at Indianapolis' Soldiers and Sailors Monument. In Covington, Kentucky, afterschool students will participate in a panel discussion on The Hate U Give, a novel addressing racism and police violence. Afterschool students on the Crow Reservation in Pryor, Montana, will honor their program's warriors and host a masquerade powwow. The State Capitol Mall in Bismarck, North Dakota will be lit up in support of afterschool programs. In West Valley City, Utah, afterschool students will cause a happy traffic jam by holding signs reading "honk if you support afterschool." In Walla Walla, Washington, students will create a virtual reality environment to showcase their digital music production, 3D printing, vlog studio and robotics work. And on a U.S. Army base in Japan, afterschool students will hold a fall festival.

Those are some of the innovative, fun, educational Lights On Afterschool events taking place across the country and at U.S. military bases worldwide this week. More than one million people will participate in the 8,000 events that make up the 18th annual Lights On Afterschool – the only national rally to showcase the skills students hone and talents they develop at their afterschool programs.

Lights On Afterschool is organized each year by the Afterschool Alliance to underscore the need to invest in afterschool programs, which provide homework help, mentoring, physical activities, healthy snacks and meals, robotics, computer programming, art and music, job- and college-readiness, and myriad opportunities for hands-on learning.

On Thursday, for the 11^th consecutive year, the iconic Empire State Building will be lit up in yellow and blue for afterschool.

There are more than 100 national Lights On Afterschool partners this year. A list of Lights On Afterschool events is available here. To find other events in your area, see this map.

The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit public awareness and advocacy organization working to ensure that all children and youth have access to quality afterschool programs. More information is available at www.afterschoolalliance.org.

SOURCE Afterschool Alliance

Related Links

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/