Neighbors For Kids (NFK) shared the 2023 summer program’s successes and highlights with the community. This year the Kids Zone Summer Day Camp provided 10 weeks of full-day child care, lots of enrichment activities, healthy meals, field trips, and tons of fun every day for 93 children ages 3-18 from throughout Lincoln County. According to Toby Winn, Director of Development this summer was surely one of the busiest on record. Thanks to a partnership and funding from Lincoln County School District, for the first time ever NFK was able to provide free tuition for all children who attended the summer day camp. NFK was also able to provid round-trip transportation to and from the site every day running a Newport and Lincoln City route.
Every day youth were kept busy rotating through activities such as arts and crafts, computer science and STEM projects, lego-building, music lessons, social-emotional learning, group team-building games, physical fitness, playing at the city’s local park, and much more. NFK’s hard-working team of staff, led by Nirvana Clifton Director of Programs and Operations,
delivered another safe, well-supervised program across the summer months while school was out of session. Other program highlights in 2023 include taking youth on another record-breaking number of field trips and off-site activities, delivering a total of 47 trips across 10 weeks.
The kid’s adventures included surfing at Otter Rock, kayaking at Ona State Park and Olalla Reservoir, horseback riding with Bright Horizons in Siletz, dune buggy rides with the teens in Florence, whale watching trips off Depoe Bay, and spending time at the region’s parks, playgrounds, hiking trails and beaches. NFK’s Cook did a tremendous job feeding all the kids three meals per day, shopping for the freshest ingredients and cooking every single nutritious meal from scratch in the facility’s on-site kitchen. Over the summer, a whopping total of 1,830 breakfasts, 2,144 lunches, and 2,052 afternoon snacks were served (and happily eaten) at the site.
Neighbors For Kids is now providing the afterschool program and preschool program Monday through Friday, from 7:30 – 6:00 pm. The preschool, serving ages 3-5, is offering a new early drop-off time of 7:30 am for parents in need. For more information, to enroll your child/children, or if you’d like to make a charitable contribution, you can send an e-mail to frontdesk.nfk@gmail.com or call 541-765-8990.
