Summer of Fun Culminates With Food Drive

The youngsters in the Clayton Summer Playground program ended their summer of fun with a food drive this year, accumulating more than 250 canned food items for a local food bank before heading back to school.

Program Director Wanda Arnold said they turned the food drive into a competition, just like a dodgeball game.

"We had some kids bringing in food by the bagful," she said. "It seems that whenever competition gets involved, the kids get excited. It was pretty cool."

The summer program, which gave dozens of local children an educational and fun way to spend weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm while out of school---and their parents a break, is offered by the Parks & Recreation Department and made heavy use of the new Community Center, which opened earlier this year. Arnold said the Center was extremely important since the record temperatures over the last couple of months made being indoors a virtual necessity at times.

"What a great facility," she said.

The children got to use the Center's new gymnasium for a host of indoor games, the playrooms for board games and classrooms for arts & crafts.

"They got to spend the summer having fun," Arnold said. "That's what we do--have fun."

To make it even better, the local Kiwanis Club treated the youngsters to pizza every Friday.