Hard pressed for space, the Central Lincoln County YMCA will move their after school programs this fall from their Damariscotta home to school facilities in Damariscotta, Bristol, and Waldoboro.
Beginning this month, and for the remainder of this school year, the local YMCA will relocate its after school programs to the Great Salt Bay, Bristol Consolidated and Miller schools.
In the past, the YMCA has hosted afterschool programs for Great Salt Bay and Nobleboro Central School K-5 students.
At the end of the school day, members of the YMCA staff accompanied the kids from the abutting Great Salt Bay School to the facility while kids from Nobleboro Central School would be bused to Damariscotta for a structured activity program.
CLC YMCA CEO Meagan Hamblett estimated 60 kids attended the program weekly. When she started in November 2014, she noticed the program was slowly overgrowing the facility.
“The kids in sixth grade and older had no space because every space was being used by the afterschool program,” Hamblett said. “You would see the older kids sitting in the entryway or doing their homework in the bleachers because those were the only places available for them.”
Hamblett worked with Great Salt Bay Principal Kim Schaff and YMCA Senior Program Director Joe Clark to find a solution that would allow the program to continue while providing opportunities for older children who came to the YMCA after school. In May, they decided to move the afterschool program to Great Salt Bay.
“It will be the same exact program we offer here, it will just be at the school,” Hamblett said.
Hamblett said the YMCA afterschool program is run at the school in most communities, so the move is not unprecedented.
The move has also allowed for the YMCA to devote more space and resources to the Leaders Club for students in grades 6 to 12.
The YMCA is also tentatively planning to expand to Bristol Consolidated School for the 2015-2016 year if enough kids sign up for the program.
Bristol Consolidated School Principal Jennifer Ribeiro said the school had been interested in providing an after school program for years. Currently the school offers what Ribeiro called a “learning lab” after school three days a week to provide homework help for students.
The new program would be similar to the one at Great Salt Bay and will start after Labor Day.
The YMCA is also partnering with Waldoboro Miller School on a new after school program called Y Without Walls starting this fall.
“Waldoboro already has an after school program, but they wanted a supplementary Y program,” Hamblett said.
YMCA staff will travel to Waldoboro to host “Wednesday’s (sic) with the Y.” The program will have a different focus each month, starting with rocket propulsion in September.
Currently there are no YMCA programs with Jefferson Village School or South Bristol Elementary School, but Hamblett said programs at the schools could begin if a need arises down the road.
