By James Feichtner
Registration is now open for all Eagle Rec programs for the winter and spring sessions, for kids from elementary levels and beyond.
“Most of our classes are elementary [kids], except engineering classes go through middle school,” Eagle Rec program manager Sue Gregerson said. “In the summer we offer more sports camps that will target older kids, but for the most part everything we offer is for K through 8th grade.”
The more than 40 programs aren’t just for Zionsville students, either. Programs are open to all children in the area.
“First of all you do not have to attend Zionsville schools to attend these programs. So we do cater to some home school kids. Definitely in the summer we had quite a few kids come over from Carmel because we did advertise,” said Gregerson.
The programs are provided by various organizations and each year they come back to offer their programs again, such as Team Witskin Tennis and KidzArt.
“Most of our programs are recurring programs and are offered year to year,” said
Gregerson. “Basically they [organizations]come back to us and they ask if we can offer classes again and we get them online. We use a software called My Online Camp to put them out on our website and people register online.”
Programs range from music and singing, art, computer based, various sports, engineering, foreign language and more.
“I’ve gotten feedback from parents because they love it. You don’t have to drive your kids anywhere. Their kids can just stay after school and attend the activities,” said Gregerson.
One group of programs that have been popular through the years are the foreign language programs. Amy Molett, head of the Spanish department through Learning Another Language, Inc., has been offering Spanish classes for young students since 1999.
“This is the 15th year of this program,” said Molett. “We started back in 1999. I was the first teacher and basically began as a mom coming to me and saying ‘I’m really wanting my daughter to learn Spanish, but they don’t offer it at the elementary school level, and I was wondering if you would do a class for her at her school.’ And so I set up a classroom, a little, tiny space in the library, and that was the first year.”
Since then the LAL Spanish program has grown to 15 staff members at various Zionsville elementary and middle schools with approximately 150 students enrolled.
Molett believes that the program has had a positive impact on the community and provides young kids a great advantage for their foreign language classes provided by schools.
“I think it impacts the community in a great way because I think it heightens the awareness for the need of bilingualism and for speaking Spanish in the community, and just how much it opens up their world, it opens up their opportunities and gives them many more experiences that they may not have if they didn’t have the ability to speak to languages,” she said.
For more information or to register for one of the numerous programs offered this winter and spring, visit http://www.zcs.k12.in.us/?q=node/139
