June 27, 2013

SO-COOL has many to thank for 20-plus years of success

STAFF REPORTS

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CENTRE — For the past couple of decades, members of the Centre Rotary Club have been so dedicated to their successful summer youth program that they never bothered to document exactly what year it began.

“It's been going on for twenty-plus years,” said Rotary Club member Johnny Roberts, who helps oversee the free, five-week SO-COOL (School's Out Camp Of Organized Learning) program for ages 8-13. “It's very rewarding to run up on one of the kids several years later and have them thank you for what the program meant to them.”

Roberts said several of the current staff members are campers from years past.

“Some are college kids who attended this, so it's a good thing for them to be able to come back and put into the community,” he said.

The Rotary Club is the primary sponsor of SO-COOL, but Roberts said the camp's 2013 budget of over $20,000 could never be met without its other financial partners, particularly the City of Centre and the Cherokee County Commission.

“The City of Centre provides the armory, the park, the baseball field, the swimming pool, they even paid for lifeguards and gave us an additional $6,500,” Roberts said.

This year's program started a couple weeks ago with a week of half-days of Bible School at Pine Grove Baptist Church. On the first day of camp, there were 92 kids in attendance. Five days later, over 125 were signed up.

“There's no deadline and the program is free,” Roberts said. “If kids just want to come for one day, they are allowed to do that.”

One of the major logistical hurdles the SO-COOL program deals with every day is feeding somewhere around a hundred children.

“The new wrinkle this year is the community-wide feeding program provided by the Board of Education at Centre Elementary School,” Roberts said. “Pine Grove buses them there for lunch after Bible School, four days a week.”

On a recent red-hot Friday morning, Roberts and several other volunteers were busy cooking dozens of hamburgers in a shaded area behind the armory.

“We'll cook for them every Friday, and some other local organizations will be providing some of the Friday meals,” Roberts said. Snacks are also provided daily.

In addition to trips to the Centre City Pool, Roberts said kids will be able to enjoy arts and crafts, sports, and receive an anti-drug message from sheriff's department deputies. There's also a patriotic program planned for the week of the July 4th holiday.

“SO-COOL is great to keep kids in some kind of organized activity through the summer,” Roberts said. “It's something for them to occupy their time and maybe help them stay out of trouble.”