The Midway Museum Foundation recently awarded $30,000 in grants to two local YMCAs serving military members.
Camp Pendleton and San Diego Armed Services YMCAs each received $15,000 for programs to help Marines, Navy personnel and their families.
Both grants focused on youth programs for military kids.
San Diego Armed services YMCA will use the grant for its Camp Hero, a day camp program for military children during school breaks. Camp Pendleton will use the grant to fund the Fisher Children’s Center on base.
The Fisher center provides drop-in child care for several hundred infants and children each month on an hourly or part-day basis. When the base’s Armed services YMCA took over the center’s daily operations last year, 69 children were participating in programs. Now the center has nearly 400 families families signed up and more than 520 children participating.
“Child care is highlighted as one of the greatest needs of our military families,” said Christopher Keane, executive director of the Armed Services YMCA Camp Pendleton.
The center provides a preschool program for children up to 5 years old with activities that include learning numbers and the alphabet, writing and story time. Themed programs range from the Birthday, to Mommy & Me Tea and Dad’s & Donuts.
“The center is the only such hourly-care facility at Camp Pendleton and is one-of-its-kind in the ,” Keane said.
“It offers a toddler part-day program that allows children to build friendships with other military kids led by staff who are both civilian and military,” Keane said.
Visit camppendletonasymca.org or call (760) 385-4921.
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