All set for back-to-school
Thirteen-year-old Meghan Zaro finished her last day at Shaw Hubfest with a shopping spree in the school store, a classroom loaded with school supplies.
Excitedly, Meghan held up a new backpack imprinted with an NBA logo. Inside was a pack of wide-rule paper, pens and two highlighter markers.
“You could pick out anything you wanted,” Meghan said, practically dancing in her purple and yellow Converse sneakers.
Friday wrapped up the four-week event for 200 fifth- to eighth-grade students living in the communities around Shaw Middle School in northeast Spokane. The summer event at Shaw was made possible with a partnership of groups that gave students an academic tune-up mixed with summer camp fun.
As summer programs like Shaw’s start to wind down, it’s a reminder that the new school year is getting close. Classes at Spokane Public Schools will begin a month from today.
Serious study was far from the minds of students at Shaw, even as they toted new boxes of markers and crayons.
Meghan received cheers Friday when students watched a student-produced version of the reality TV show “Survivor.”
When the final vote came to decide a winner, Meghan’s name was drawn and students gasped in the darkened classroom and cheered. Several shook her hand afterward.
“Oh, my gosh,” she said, her braces flashing.
Enrollment at the camp cost $10. The program was put on by Shaw and the Northeast Community Center. A Washington State University nutrition grant helped the staff serve two meals a day, five days a week.
Meghan’s mom, Anne Zaro, said her daughter had to be coaxed to attend. Zaro, who works full time, said she wanted her daughter to be active during summer.
“It’s nice to know she’s in a controlled safe environment and learning with her peers,” Zaro said.
Shaw science teacher Christine Rooney taught students how to attract butterflies and birds to their backyards and apartment patios with certain plants and bird feeders.
“The kids really get into it,” Rooney said.
For each day of attendance, students were awarded tickets to spend in the school store.
Nancy Shepherd, a Shaw office assistant who’s been at the school 16 years, worked at the summer program and did all the shopping for the store – including 125 backpacks and 60 zippered notebooks.
Shepherd said her husband wondered why she didn’t take the summer off. But when he came to visit and saw the kids laughing and skipping down the halls, he understood.
“You’re having fun, aren’t you?” he said.