Program presents end-of-summer Family Fun Day

By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter

Summer is just about winding down, and soon it will be time for brand new boxes of crayons and freshly sharpened pencils. But it's not too late for one last bout of summer fun, and KidSpirit at Oregon State University is ready to provide it Saturday with its first Family Fun Day.

For the first time, KidSpirit is offering an end-of-summer daylong event for kids and their families. Family Fun Day is a fund-raiser for the program and is open to the public.

KidSpirit offers area children a variety of year-round activities at OSU, providing both care and supervision of children during the day and a long list of artistic, educational and athletic events. Ranging from gymnastics to tennis, the program fills the summer with events for grade-schoolers. About 2,500 children enrolled this summer.

On a warm Thursday afternoon, several dozen children were perched on balance beams and bouncing off mats in the gymnasium at Langton Hall. The gymnastics class was packed full of enthusiastic and energetic students burning off a little steam and learning how to tuck and roll if perchance their balancing ended in a tumble.

"Stick your arms out like an airplane," an instructor shouted as eight children wobbled along four beams.

KidSpirit is also offering science courses for the first time through a program called SKIES, Spirited Kids in Engineering and Science. The program has attracted even more students to the KidSpirit Program.

A teen leadership program also adds to KidSpirit. Students in ninth through 11th grade can get leadership training and help teach KidSpirit courses at the same time. The experience is intended to help teens decide if they want to pursue a career in teaching, coaching or school administration through teaching opportunities.

During the KidSpirit Family Fun event, children and parents can participate in relay games, basketball, swimming, gymnastics and tennis as well as arts and crafts, face painting and a coloring contest. Some events require a $10 pledge, while others cost $1 per game.

Raffle tickets, which are $3 each, are available today at room 125 in Langton Hall between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Raffle prizes include a children's bike, KidSpirit tuition, date night packages, Winter Hawk hockey tickets and other prizes provided by local businesses.

Proceeds will be used toward the purchase of new equipment as well as to create scholarships for kids who want to participate in the program.

The events take place Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Memorial Union Quad. For more information, call 737-5437 or see http://kidspirit.orst.edu online.

Theresa Hogue is the higher education reporter for the Gazette-Times. She can be reached at theresa.hogue@lee.net or at 758-9526.