By Pepper Fisher
SEQUIM — It’s going to be a great summer outdoors for a lot of kids in the Sequim area because of a unique partnership between the City of Sequim, the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA.
The City of Sequim received a $210,000 Summer Experiences and Enrichment for Kids, (SEEK) grant from the Washington Parks & Recreation Association and the Association of Washington Cities. It’s a grant that the city didn’t qualify for in the past because they don’t have a summer program of their own. But this year it was opened up to cities on a sort of “pass-through” basis that lets them partner with existing programs in their area.
Assistant City Manager Charisse Deschenes says, once that happened, they kicked into gear.
“I found out, looked like the deadline was within the week. I called Mary Budke, she has a master grant writer. Over the weekend they wrote something up and shared, and we contacted the YMCA shortly thereafter. They added to it, and we had it submitted within a few days. And we just finalized the subcontract agreement with the state, and now we’re working on contracts with the individual agencies.”
Janet Gray is the Resource Development Director at Sequim Boys and Girls Club. She says their $125,000 cut of the grant will let them keep this summer’s day rate at the pandemic price of just $10 per day, but they also expect to be able to accept the pre-pandemic number of kids into the program this year.
She says they’ll also be able to do some things they haven’t been able to afford in the past.
“Activities that have fees, like zoos and aquariums, things that have educational benefit that get our kids outside and have been cost prohibitive and the past. So we’ll be able to introduce some new activities. We have one big field trip and one local field trip planned for each week. So, yes, we’d love to hit Point Defiance Zoo, that’s on our list to do this summer.”
Over at the YMCA in Sequim, they’re using their $65,000 cut of the grant to create an entirely new program this summer. The 9-week Outdoor Leadership program will be able to accept 25 kids ages 12-17. On the surface, it’s a hiking program. But Executive Director Gail Sumpter has designed it to be much more than that.
“The plan is to use two days a week to do leadership skills and socializing and learning things. We’re going to learn about the Olympic Peninsula geology and geography, and the marine environment, and how to read a map. How to find your way without a cell phone in your hand. And then on Fridays, we’ll be doing the hike. I want the kids to be able to research hikes and plan hikes. I want them to kind of take ownership.”
Sumpter says one of the best parts about this program is, it’s absolutely free to the kids who participate.
To learn more about the Boys and Girls Club program, visit bgc-op.org. For the YMCA program, go to olympicpeninsulaymca.org.