During the February break, the City of Martensville offered their new School’s Out! program at the Martensville Athletic Pavilion. This program was developed to provide children with activities on days when there is no school running. The program was something that the residents within the community were looking for, as parents were looking for an option that could provide some physical activity for their children during school breaks.
The City hosted a “kick off” to the program on January 31st and saw great response from the community; however, they could not have predicted how immense the response would be for the February break. Predicting approximately 20 children per day, when the pre-registrations began coming in, it was astonishing to see the numbers doubling. “The turnout was amazing and we weren’t quite expecting that. Each day, we had between 30 and 40 kids, and had to bring in Karly, our assistant to help with the program because there were too many kids for one person,” Angie Reddekopp, City of Martensville Program Coordinator said. Some had to be turned away prior to the program, as there was no space available for more additions. The program ran from Tuesday, February 20th to Thursday, February 22nd, with a different theme being offered each day.
A drop-in School’s Out day will be held March 12th, which does not require pre-registration; however for the Easter break, Reddekopp noted that parents will be required to register their children beforehand. “It is a new program and people are just learning about it, but we really want to stress the need for parents to pre-register so we can ensure that we have the supplies that we need on hand,” Reddekopp explained. The School’s Out program scheduled for the first week of April will run similarly to the past week, with various themes provided for each day. There will be limited space available so be sure to register early. More information about the Easter break program will be available next week. “So far, the response has been amazing and there has been lots of positive feedback so we want to see it continue. It seems to have picked up right away and we are really happy with the success of it,” added Reddekopp.