Lights on!

Children in Scottsdale had a reason to leave the lights on in October, when the Scottsdale Center for the Arts hosted the Lights On Afterschool event. Approximately 500 children, ages 6-12 years old, were in attendance from all nine city of Scottsdale after-school programs.

Kids witnessed performances by the Scottsdale International Club, Valley Cheer Dynamics, ASU mascot Sparky and Scottsdale Gymnastics. The guest speaker was Dustin Pedroia from the Scottsdale Scorpions Baseball Fall League and Carlos Quinton from the Diamondbacks.

Lights on Afterschool (LOA) is a project sponsored by the Afterschool Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring quality and affordable afterschool programs by the year 2010. LOA is dedicated to helping working families keep youth safe, and gives children the opportunity to grow and learn. The city of Scottsdale was one of 6,000 sites to host this event this year.

Once in the theater, each program performed their site cheer and one child read an essay on, "why they feel afterschool programs are important." The program ended with a slideshow of all the afterschool programs in attendance. Mayor Mary Manross, Councilwoman Betty Drake, city officials and parents of the participants were also in attendance.

For more information on how your program can participate in Lights on Afterschool or for information on the Afterschool Alliance, go to www.afterschoolalliance.org.