Montgomery County’s Bauer Recreation Center welcomed children in grades three through five from local elementary schools and the surrounding community Oct. 12 for its bimonthly evening activity program, Club Friday.
Club Friday is a program that allows parents to bring their children to the Bauer Recreation Center every other Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. throughout the school year for a night of activities, games, arts and crafts and open use of the center. The program is designed to offer a safe childcare environment on Friday nights, while the parents can have an evening to themselves without the kids.
Activities provided for the kids include a moon bounce, Dance-Dance Revolution and other video games, movies, music and dancing and arts and crafts, including bracelet making. The gym is also open to the children to play basketball, soccer and other games. “[Club Friday] is [the kids’] time to get free realm of the community center…it’s what a club would be for kids, nothing but fun,” said Club Friday program director Teresa Rivera.
However, Club Friday and related programs throughout the county have been having trouble with low membership numbers to the activities. Despite having eight schools in the area and more than 4000 children eligible for the programs, they receive only a very small number of participants. Club Friday still needs new participants to register in order to keep the program running through the school year.
The night of Oct. 12 may have been the last Club Friday for this year unless Bauer Recreation Center can get more applicants for the program. Erica Shortall is a fourth grade student at Maryvale Elementary School who attends Club Friday regularly. “It’s kind of bad…we heard that [Oct. 12] would be the last day of Club Friday unless more people signed up,” said Shortall.
One of the reasons that programs such as Club Friday have difficulty gaining memberships is because of a lack of effective advertising. Despite the fact that emails and flyers for programs are sent to all of the local elementary schools and past participants, there is still a minimal turnout of participants. In addition, web sites for the programs have proven to be ineffective means of advertising.
Despite the fact that many programs fail to get enough members, Bauer Recreation Center continually tries to start activities programs for both children and teens. “The programs we try to bring are teen activity programs…and non-school day activities for children, but again, it’s hard to get enough people for the programs,” said Bauer Recreation Center programs coordinator John Quarless.
Information about registering for Club Friday can be received at Bauer Recreation Center at 14625 Bauer Drive Rockville, MD 20853 or by calling (301) 468-4015. To register online visit http://recweb.montgomerycountymd.gov, course number 204482. Registration for Club Friday is $25 for the entire school year and all members receive two guest passes for the program. Guests are welcome to the program with at least one registered member and a guest pass.