Salvation Army’s year round programs for children
Tyler Heavelyn, 8, of Uhrichsville participates in cornet class.
nriching the lives of children is one of the goals of the Salvation Army in Dover. It offers an array of activities year round through its programs including the Learning Zone, Crosstrain, Youth Group Nights and Summer Day Camp programs.
“The Learning Zone is a national program provided by the Salvation Army to meet the needs of the community. Ours is a before- and after-school program for elementary students,” said Barb Huff, the Learning Zone director.
The Learning Zone offers programming for children in kindergarten through fifth grade in New Philadelphia and Dover schools. The program opens at 7:30 a.m., and they leave for school at 8:15 a.m. The morning program is currently serving nine children while the after-school program serves 27. The program utilizes a STEM area for activities.
“We have a lot of things for them to do that involve science projects and exploring and learning things on their own that interests them,” Huff said.
They also work with the Tuscarawas County Public Library, which has set up a pop-up library in the STEM room. The books are refreshed every two weeks.
“We have a lot of board games and toys in the game room, and we also have an art room,” Huff said.
Activities also are held in the facility’s gym, a technology area with computers and iPads, the cafeteria, and outdoors where the group will soon put in a garden.
“We try to keep them very active. They like to play outside, and any kind of activities that involve movement seems to be their favorite things, of course, because they spend all day cooped up, and we don’t want to coop them up here,” Huff said.
Many of the children who attend the Learning Zone also sign up for the summer program, which is Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Before and after care for the summer program also is offered, so the Salvation Army facility is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
“Our summer is jam packed,” Huff said. “We do a lot of field trips and get out in the community. We are on the go in the summertime.”
The Crosstrain night was so popular it has been split into two nights, Wednesdays are now Youth Group Night for students grades 7-12, and Thursday is for pre-k to sixth grade. The groups are split into smaller groups for activities including dance, drama, cornet playing, bucket drumming, archery and more.
Groups start at 5:30 p.m. and participate in one activity before dinner is served at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria.
“While the kids are eating dinner, our youth pastor will lead Good News Club. It’s a Sunday school structured time where the kids will have an opportunity to participate in activities and learn about some Bible stories and things of that nature from 6:30-7,” Lt. Andrew Allen of the Dover Salvation Army said.
Gary Weed of New Philadelphia is the youth pastor, and he also teaches the bucket drumming class. Weed also leads the Club 316 troop program, which is similar to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts programs. Club 316 participants also work on projects to earn different badges.
There are a few differences between the Wednesday and Thursday groups.
“Wednesday is more of a youth group kind of setting: small groups because they’re all teens and we’ll be able to do some material that’s geared more towards their age group, some of the things that they go through as teenagers,” Allen said. “Then we still do dinner on Wednesday, and we’ll do some recreation time. That’s usually archery or some other game that we do as a group.”
The programs and transportation to and from the Salvation Army are free. Anyone can attend the programs who is in the appropriate age range.
“The Red Kettle Campaign really helps to support our youth programs, whether it’s the supplies that we need for different activities throughout the night. Because we do so many activities, there’s a lot of supplies that go into that,” Allen said.
The Learning Zone is not a free program, but Allen said the amount they charge does not even come close to covering the costs. They also offer sponsorships to help cover the costs if needed. The summer program is under the umbrella of the Learning Zone.
“There are some companies and donors that will sponsor children for that program,” Allen said. “The community helps us out tremendously, not just during the Red Kettle Campaign, but through sponsorships for our summer day camp.”
The Salvation Army does everything it can to ensure finances don’t get in the way of a child attending one of the programs.
Allen enjoys seeing the children get excited about learning, especially when he instructs the cornet class.
“It’s pretty cool. A lot of them have never picked up a cornet in their life. So it’s really neat to work with them,” Allen said. “The group that I’m working with right now, they’ve made so much progress, even just in the past two to three weeks.”
Archery is another area that is rewarding to see the progress. In a few weeks, participants have learned the basics and are getting their arrows closer and closer to the bull’s-eye.
All the activities are created to help the children grow up to be well-rounded people. With the Good News Club, the children can apply what they’ve learned from the Bible to what they go through in their lives.
“It’s really fun to see that progression, and it’s a privilege to be able to work with them and to play a part in helping them grow and develop,” Allen said.
There are no advance requirements needed to enroll children in the Wednesday or Thursday evening programs. Allen said people can just walk in the door. Someone will be available to discuss the program with them and get them enrolled. Parents can then drop their children off or use the Salvation Army’s transportation.
“What’s really big with everything that we do here is we want to create as few barriers as possible to provide help for those who need it,” Allen said. “Whether that’s social services or our youth programs, we cut down on those barriers as best we can.”
During last summer’s feeding program for children age 18 and under, they set up at an area library and just distributed food. They plan to do it again this summer.
“Free meals to 18 and under — no questions asked, no registration, no signups, no nothing. And for a lot of people, it just seems weird because people are so used to having to jump through hoops to be able to receive help, which is unfortunate,” Allen said.
Allen invites everyone to attend the pancake breakfast and Easter Egg Dash fundraiser for the organization on April 16. The event will start at 9 a.m., and tickets are $5.