Century Adventures adding fun activities for kids

By Anna Ericksonaerickson@parkrapidsenterprise.com Century Adventures, an after school program in Park Rapids, started its summer program on Monday. About 65 kids are participating in the program, which continues to grow. Tonja Petersen heads up the program, which is offered through Community Education. During the summer, kids in grades K-5 are able to learn some gardening basics and grow their own snacks by taking care of some raised bed garden plots next to Century School. Students are also able to play outside with other kids and participate in other activities.
Jill Dickinson, Community Education director, presented some of Petersen’s ideas for expansion at a recent Park Rapids Area School Board meeting. Century Adventures is looking to create a new outdoor arts and music space. “What a way to broaden our horizons and expand our imagination,” Petersen wrote. “As a group, we talked about things we would like.” The top choice was an outdoor theater for performances. Next, they wanted fun musical instruments to play. Last was an idea for outdoor, acrylic easels. An application was submitted for a grant through Itasca-Mantrap Round Up funds and the program received $1,000 to put towards the vision. They will be focusing on the theater and have plans for a music area in the future. The plan is to build the theater, which includes a floating deck with backdrop. They will also have a small garden near the theater with some shade tolerant flowers and plants. They also want to add benches for sitting and to add mulch. Century Adventures also received funding from the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) to use toward the garden. They will build a permanent border garden against the outer wall where their raised beds are located. They hope to have some bright perennials and possibly some trellises with climbing vegetables. They also want to add some more raised garden beds. “We will add a couple cow panels to arch between some of the raised beds for pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini and the like, to climb,” Petersen wrote. “This will be fun for the kids to watch grow and learn how to train the vines.” Students love cucumber snack day, she said. The program continues to grow and provides an opportunity for kids to have fun while learning.  By Anna Ericksonaerickson@parkrapidsenterprise.comCentury Adventures, an after school program in Park Rapids, started its summer program on Monday.About 65 kids are participating in the program, which continues to grow.Tonja Petersen heads up the program, which is offered through Community Education.During the summer, kids in grades K-5 are able to learn some gardening basics and grow their own snacks by taking care of some raised bed garden plots next to Century School.Students are also able to play outside with other kids and participate in other activities.
Jill Dickinson, Community Education director, presented some of Petersen’s ideas for expansion at a recent Park Rapids Area School Board meeting.Century Adventures is looking to create a new outdoor arts and music space.“What a way to broaden our horizons and expand our imagination,” Petersen wrote. “As a group, we talked about things we would like.”The top choice was an outdoor theater for performances. Next, they wanted fun musical instruments to play. Last was an idea for outdoor, acrylic easels.An application was submitted for a grant through Itasca-Mantrap Round Up funds and the program received $1,000 to put towards the vision. They will be focusing on the theater and have plans for a music area in the future.The plan is to build the theater, which includes a floating deck with backdrop. They will also have a small garden near the theater with some shade tolerant flowers and plants. They also want to add benches for sitting and to add mulch.Century Adventures also received funding from the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) to use toward the garden. They will build a permanent border garden against the outer wall where their raised beds are located.They hope to have some bright perennials and possibly some trellises with climbing vegetables. They also want to add some more raised garden beds.“We will add a couple cow panels to arch between some of the raised beds for pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini and the like, to climb,” Petersen wrote. “This will be fun for the kids to watch grow and learn how to train the vines.”Students love cucumber snack day, she said.The program continues to grow and provides an opportunity for kids to have fun while learning.