Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen, Mayor Laurel Lunt Prussing, and citizens of Champaign and Urbana have joined with over 7,500 communities around the nation to celebrate the importance of afterschool programs by declaring October 22nd, 2015, as Lights On Afterschool Day in the cities of Champaign and Urbana.
15 million children in this country have no safe, supervised place to go when the school day ends. After school programs found in our community provide significant leadership in the education and well-being of our youth, grounded in the principle that youth can reach their full potential by working and learning in partnership with caring adults through a quality afterschool program.
To celebrate Lights On Afterschool Day, 4-H of Champaign County will be hosting a Lights On Afterschool open house on October 22nd from 4-7 p.m. at their EC3 location at 201 W. Kenyon Road in Champaign. Attendees can enjoy a gallery walk featuring ten 4-H groups, hands-on STEM experiments, and demonstrations from the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab, such as a 3-D printer and an embroidery machine. The event will include Urbana City Mayor Laurel Lunt Prussing’s reading of the Lights On Afterschool Day proclamation at 5 p.m.
This gathering is part of a nationwide movement to highlight three of the significant contributions that afterschool programs such as 4-H make to our community: keeping kids safe and healthy, inspiring them to learn, and relieving working parents of worries about their children’s activities during the afternoon hours.
University of Illinois Extension provides equal opportunities in programs and employment. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate, please contact the Extension Office at 217.333.7672.
University of Illinois * U.S. Dept. of Agriculture * Local Extension Councils Cooperating