Keeping Cool Kids going benefits the community

During the summer, working parents often struggle to find a safe place for their children to spend the day.

Cool Kids and No Limits were founded in 2001 as summer and winter after school programs associated with the Sidney Public Schools. Started with a grant of $700,000 through No Child Left Behind, Cool Kids supervises elementary age children. No Limits, meanwhile, provides activities for middle school through high school students.

Both programs offer tutoring, field trips and outside speakers. During the summer, physical fitness activities and hands on science projects are added, as well as more relaxed events, such as swimming, movies and bowling. They also provide breakfast, lunch and snacks through the United States Department of Agriculture.

In 2001, when Cool Kids obtained the grant, enrollment reached 250 students almost immediately. This has since leveled off to an average of 175 each year.

The original grant targeted schools with a 40 percent participation rate in the free and reduced lunch program. When the Sidney school district divided their facilities by grade, starting kindergarten and first graders in South Elementary and placing second and third in North, average participation dropped below the required level.

This made Cool Kids and No Limits ineligible for further grants.

“A lot of our subsidies that we have received are no longer available because of this,” acknowledged director Coleen Langdon. “We have lost a lot of our free and reduced lunch people.”

Cool Kids and No Limits continues thanks to donations from local businesses and individuals. The Cheyenne County Ladies Chamber, for example, helps defray the cost of supplies and field trips.

“Some kids when they go home are on the loose,” said Sidney teacher Vicki Brauer in praise of the program. “Here they have a snack and homework is re-enforced. Last year there were kids that were not able to pay and they did not get their homework in as they did with Cool Kids. It’s a win win situation.”

For parents with children involved in the program, the effort clearly has an impact.

“I live in Peetz and I work in Sidney,” said Ashley Kennedy. “It allows me to have daycare that is more affordable and they do more activities than a home daycare. It is a structured school setting as well. My children enjoy coming here. It would probably be a struggle to find a daycare I could afford.”