From Coast to Coast, the Spotlight Is On Afterschool This Week

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Students at the Boys & Girls Club of East Los Angeles will hold a 5k Bubble Fun Run. The Santa Clara After School Collaborative will host a Breakfast of Champions. Windham Public Schools in Connecticut will hold a mad science night and a Hispanic Heritage event. The city of Orlando will hold Lights On for Superhero Fun, a community celebration. Students in Honolulu will rally at the State Capitol. Michigan State University and the Boys & Girls Club of Lansing will hold a Maker Carnival. The Farmington, New Mexico Public Library will host a ghost story read-along with the mayor. At Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, students will put together a giant puzzle featuring messages about what they enjoy in their afterschool program. In Cranston, Rhode Island, U.S. Senator Jack Reed will be among the luminaries at events that include a student-led Cancer Survivors Walk.

Those are some of the innovative, educational, fun Lights On Afterschool events taking place across the country and at U.S. military bases worldwide this week. More than one million people are expected to participate in the 8,000 events that make up the 17th 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, healthy snacks, mentoring, physical activities, robotics, computer programming, art and music, job- and college-readiness, and myriad opportunities for hands-on learning.

On Thursday, for the tenth consecutive year, the iconic Empire State Building will be lit up in yellow for afterschool.

In a unanimous vote, the United States Senate passed a resolution recognizing October 20 as a day to celebrate Lights On Afterschool.

There are more than 100 national Lights On Afterschool partners this year; see the list here.

A list of Lights On Afterschool events is available here. To find other events in your area, see the map here.

SOURCE Afterschool Alliance

Related Links

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/