Kid Zone closing Feb. 1; Thayer resigns

As a result of Sandy Thayer leaving as volunteer director of Kid Zone on February 1, the program will be disbanded.

According to Thayer, Kid Zone suffers from having no tax exempt status, no board of directors, and too few sources of funds.

There had been hope that Lakeside Community Association could take on that responsibility, but it’s charter prevents such an alliance. And due to by-law stipulations of other local help organizations, no other group is in a position to take the Kid Zone program under its wings.

In October, in a last-minute effort to increase funding, Thayer sent out letters to the parents of children attending Kid Zone. Each was requested to contribute $30 per month or whatever they could afford.

According to Thayer, while non-parents did contribute, she had a total of two parents pay the $30 for the month of November 2008. None of the other parents put in a single cent to help offset the cost of the program helping their own children.

Some individuals had generously become sponsors of the program for short periods of time over the two years, including the Lion’s Club and Friends of the Library. Umpqua Bank was very generous this past Christmas season giving much needed supplies.

Kid Zone provides children with homework assistance, games, crafts, movies, show and tell, gardening skills in the Harmony garden, book reading, story time, music, sports, Christmas program involvement, community clean-up, etiquette and has also provided guest speakers.

In addition to activities, a meal, picked up daily by a volunteer, is provided at taxpayer expense through North Bay school’s lunch program. As many as thirty children were sharing in the Kid Zone program prior to the Christmas holiday.

Over two years ago, Thayer stepped into the breach and has brought credibility to a program that struggled in the past, resulting in Thayer picking up the pieces of the past Kid Zone director, Shawna Waters.

Sandy has been offered and will be accepting a position as teachers’ assistant on-call with Head Start and will be looking at spending lost time with her family.

Thayer has some final thoughts about the program.

She told us: “The economy is hitting all of us. Take care and we will miss all the children. Keep a close eye on them so they don’t get hurt.

“Hopefully the dumpster’s get moved before the grant comes. Keep safety first.

“And help also to keep our Officer Scott Moore on the payroll. He has made a big difference in how the kids think and play here.”