The building is so quiet after completing nineteen days of summer Cool Off Days fun! This year we had a record number of youth registered for our K-8 summer program. On average Banyan welcomed 60 youth daily into the building and weekly we saw 70 different youth come through the doors for programming. And one of our favorite metrics:
Cool Off Days welcomed 19 new youth and their families to Banyan Community!
This summer, the middle school youth explored topics like coding, architecture, and comic books, and we visited water parks, The Walker, and the Science Museum. Despite all these exciting things in middle school, the most important aspect of our Cool Off Days was welcoming our five new youth. As staff, we made language provisions for some of our new friends, who only spoke Spanish. Bilingual staff were paired with them and we translated slides and materials so that our new friends always felt comfortable jumping into activities. After spending time working with Damara (Banyan Program Associate) on the language learning app DuoLingo, Ruby asked, “Can we wait to play until after I’m done with this?” She was proud of her progress and wasn’t ready to stop!
Our middle school youth also made every new youth feel comfortably welcomed and initiated friendships, too. Banyan youth invited our new friends into games, talked about their favorite things, or just stepped in to help when needed. Jason (8th grade grad) stepped in at one point to help with translation for an activity, telling our Middle School Educator “Don’t worry, Kayne. I can help him.” We are proud of the work we did, but even more proud of the youth, new and returning, for all of their effort and empathy.
Our elementary youth enjoyed visits from the fire and police departments, Dodge Nature Center, ArtiCulture, the dance group Los Alegres Bailadores, and so much more. A favorite field trip for elementary youth was visiting the Jim Lupient water park. The water park has a large open pool area for youth to swim and play games together as well as THREE water slides. The youth are always thrilled to go on the water slides. The Kindergarten and 1st grade girls spent the first hour of the day going down the slides over and over again. After one of the trips down the water slide, Maria (Kindergarten) exclaimed, “This is so much better than my iPad at home!”
Additionally, the slides provide our youth with an opportunity for a new experience. Nataly (2nd grade) had never been on a water slide before, and was feeling a little nervous about going. She determined to try the two-person tube slide with a friend. When she emerged at the slide end she had the brightest smile on her face. She beamed to the staff that it was so much fun and she was proud of herself for going down.
Giving youth the opportunity to conquer a new experience like going down a water slide, holding a chicken in their hands, or sounding a police siren helps to build self-confidence.
There are SO many more stories to share from these last 5 weeks. We hope this gives you a taste of the impact Banyan programming has and how your partnership makes a difference. We hope you enjoy this 45 second recap video from the summer.