Document text
Salvation for busy parents Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Michael Mann, 7, of Medford, holds a cat figure he made at the Salvation Army day camp recently. The camp offers low-cost supervision and entertainment to area kids. By JONEL ALECCIA Last summer, Salvation Army Capt. Lisa VanCleef couldn't help but notice the groups of kids roaming around the agency's west Medford church. "They were just hanging out in the parking lot," VanCleef said. This summer, the children are welcome inside. For the first time, the local Salvation Army is running a summer day camp, an eight-week program that offers low-cost supervision and entertainment to area kids - and peace of mind to their working parents. "It's a godsend," said Sharon Begley, 48, who works for a Medford bankruptcy trustee. Her children, Ray, 10, and Sasha, 9, spent one morning this week making fantasy animals from construction paper. "We didn't have day care and it was just perfect," said Begley, who pays $5 per child per week for the service. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, kids ages 6 to 12 are spending the summer engaged in crafts, games, songs, Bible stories and the occasional field trip. Staffed by college students with child-care experience, the program is open to 20 children from as far as Grants Pass and as near as the Beatty Street neighborhood. It's all part of an outreach effort that VanCleef hopes can expand to include Salvation Army youth troops this summer and after-school care this fall. "We see a need," said VanCleef, who was transferred to Medford with her husband, Capt. John VanCleef, a year ago. Until now, the local Salvation Army hasn't attempted to meet the child-care need, choosing instead to focus on food, shelter and clothing. Indeed, VanCleef acknowledges most folks don't know that the Salvation Army operates more than 300 youth recreation centers and more than 200 child-care centers nationwide. "We haven't done a good job of marketing," she said. But the summer camp, paid for with $10,000 in Salvation Army operating funds, is a natural extension of family services, she said. And it's a necessary one, said Patti Busse of the Job Council's Child Care Resource Network. Low-cost summer care is among the most common requests from parents, especially in Medford, she says. "Care on the west side is hard to find," she added. For parents such as Liz Seeburg, 32, of Eagle Point, the new program has been good for her 5-year-old son, Austin. "He really likes it," said Seeburg, who works at the Medford airport. "He brings home crafts every day." In fact, Austin was hard at work on a recent morning on an elaborate yarn sculpture. "This is funner than school," he said. Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.