By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Rocky and Apollo. The Red Sox and the Yankees. And now Park and Eisenhower elementaries. Friday morning, the two Great Bend schools will host a Lemonade War to highlight the summer R.E.A.C.H. program.
"Our purpose for the July program was enrichment, to provide opportunities for our kids they wouldn't normally have during the regular school year," Assistant Superintendent Tricia Reiser said at Monday's USD 428 board meeting. "We wanted to kind of piggyback on what Lacy Wolters had shared with you earlier in the year about the work-based learning, and about the career awareness we could do for our elementary."
R.E.A.C.H stands for recreation, enrichment, academic, community, and health. The program is meant to provide some fun for the district's K-5 students, but also to teach real-world entrepreneurial skills. The lemonade competition teaches students about marketing, manners, accounting, and overall sportsmanship.
The Lemonade War takes place from 9-11:15 a.m. Friday morning at Park and Eisenhower elementary schools. The cost is 50 cents for a cup of lemonade, with each cup purchased serving as a refreshing vote for that school. The groups will determine how to spend the money raised in the competition.
Reiser said approximately 60-65 students were utilizing summer school programs at both Eisenhower and Park through June. Superintendent Khris Thexton reported the summer lunch program handed out, on average, more than 1,500 meals per day in June. That number has dipped slightly to 1,125 meals per day at Park, Eisenhower, and Riley schools in the first week of July.
"It's still getting a lot of use, which is the idea," Thexton said. "We want it to be used. We want families to take that option so we can guarantee two meals a day through the week for kids that need it or want to use that option."
The free summer lunch program runs each weekday through July 29 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Park, Riley, and Eisenhower schools.