Rally will help celebrate afterschool programs in Hawaii

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Hawaii Afterschool Alliance will join the Afterschool Alliance in this year's Lights On Afterschool, a nationwide series of events celebrating and supporting afterschool programs, on October 19.  Lights On Afterschool is the only nationwide rally for afterschool programs. More than 8,000 events are expected to take place this year across the country and at U.S. military bases worldwide.

The Hawaii Afterschool Alliance's Lights On Afterschool event will be at the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda from 2:45 pm to 5 pm. The afterschool children from 21st Century Community Learning Centers, After-School All-Stars, Boys and Girls Club in Hawaii, Kama?aina Kids, Moiliili Community Center, Parent and Children Together, PALS, R.E.A.C.H. and YMCA will showcase their talents for art, dance and music, they provide testimonies, will decorate the Capitol and will demonstrate their appreciation for afterschool programs by sign-waving on Beretania Street. Parents, students, teachers, principals, community members are invited to attend.

The Hawaii Afterschool Alliance is working to inspire, empower and connect individuals and organizations to create a statewide system of afterschool and out-of-school-time programs that support learning. Paula Adams, Executive Director of the Hawaii Afterschool Alliance, is an Afterschool Ambassador for the State of Hawaii, selected by the Afterschool Alliance to promote the benefits of afterschool programs and speak out about the need to make more programs available to the children and families that need them.

The 2014 "America After 3PM" household survey of more than 30,000 families, commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance, found that participation in afterschool programs has increased to 10.2 million students nationwide, up from 6.5 million in 2004. But the unmet demand for afterschool programs has increased as well. Today, for every child in an afterschool program, there are two more whose parents say they would participate, if a program were available. One in five students in the United States today is unsupervised after the school day ends.

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