Signups are under way for a summer program at Duckworth Park sponsored by a faith-based group.
Reign in Life Ministries will be hosting its Summer Academy for Children, or SACS, which runs from June 4 through July 6. The program is designed to provide quality, affordable and fun educational sessions for students in need of tutoring and a structured summer break, according to Cora Johnson of Reign in Life Ministries.
Johnson and her daughter, Alexis Ridge, who is the program director, recently spoke about the sessions as they held a signup and recruited volunteers to help them at the Columbia-Marion County Public Library.
“We offer a lot of things,” Ridge said. “Being a faith-based ministry, we do a session every morning where we talk about scriptures and the Bible. It’s like a devotional. They asked questions because there are a lot of things that they don’t understand.”
They also do tutoring sessions, both in groups and one-on-one, in areas like reading, math and spelling.
The idea for the program, which has been around for nine years, came to Cora and Antonio Johnson because of the need for structured summer programs.
“When our granddaughter, Jada, was four, getting ready to go into school, she didn’t have anything to do during the summer,” Cora Johnson said. “I though we needed to keep her little mind focused on school so she could grow to the next level. That’s what we’re doing with these children. We’ve had some great successes.”
Johnson said she thinks the new location at Duckworth Park will be much better.
“We were housing it for a few years at the Pearl River District building. It was a great building and all, but we didn’t have any shade to go outside and do any activities with the kids because it was hot,” she said. “We promote physical fitness. We have an obstacle course; we do games and all that just to keep them active.”
Healthy and nutritious snacks are offered.
“We’ve had kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds where maybe they weren’t getting the proper nutrition,” she said. “Our ministry provides the food, and we have parents that donate. We’re hoping for a wide variety of children. Where we’re going to be located, at Duckworth, we hope to pull some of those children in. Hopefully, we’ll get some people to sponsor some of them. Our ministry is set aside to sponsor about five of them. This is for the ones who cannot afford the $50 fee. It’s a one-time registration of $50 to help cover the costs.”
In the past five years, the program has had up to 40 children involved. On an average day, 25 students are present.
To register or volunteer, call (601) 620-9589 or (601) 731-4764. Reign in Life Ministries also has a website, www.reign-n-life.com.
