Prime Time Palm Beach County Hosted Three Events in Honor of Lights On Afterschool

October 31, 2019

Boynton Beach, FL - Prime Time Palm Beach County joined more than one million people at 10,000 events to show support and bring attention to quality afterschool programs. For the first time in 19 years, Prime Time hosted three events on October 24, 2019 in honor of Lights On Afterschool Palm Beach County. The Afterschool Alliance organizes “Lights On Afterschool” to underscore the need to invest in afterschool programs, which give children and youth homework help, mentors, robotics, computer programming, arts and music, sports and fitness activities, college- and job-readiness, critical thinking skills, healthy snacks, and team-based, hands-on learning.

Beginning at 10:00 a.m. on October 24, 2019 at Center for Creative Education in West Palm Beach, Prime Time welcomed 98 attendees to “Coffee with a Cause” where they were entertained by performances from the Roosevelt Middle School Drumline and For the Children, Inc. RCDC dancers. Guest speaker Daphne Valcin, a leadership and business coach, took the stage sharing her personal story leaving the audience inspired and empowered to make a difference in the lives of the children and youth in their programs.

Following Valcin's awe-inspiring speech, District 5 City Commissioner Christina Lambert and The School District of Palm Beach County Manager of Out-of-School Time Programs Olivia Rogers took the stage to proclaim October 24, 2019 as Lights On Afterschool Day. At the close of the event, Prime Time distributed postcards to attendees and were asked to take action by writing to Congress to save and expand afterschool funding. All postcards were collected and will be hand-delivered to the Washington, D.C. congressional offices  next month.

Starting at 2:30 p.m., a Prime Time bus tour commenced in partnership with Digital Vibez, an organization that provides children avenues to maintain a healthy lifestyle through physical fitness and recreational activities.  Included on the Digital Vibez bus was Senator Lori Berman’s Legislative Assistant Evelyn DuPlecy, as well as Prime Time’s board president, funders and staff.

The bus tour stopped at two participating programs of the Palm Beach County Quality Improvement System: Seminole Trails Elementary Afterschool Program and Pine Jog Elementary Afterschool Program. Seminole Trails was joined by Prime Time partner Florida Fishing Academy giving children in the program a demonstration on its Mobile Marine Lab that included lessons on Florida’s fragile natural resources.

Pine Jog Elementary Afterschool Program was joined by Prime Time partner Green Mouse Academy, where the instructors were working with the children in small groups to build safe school houses with Legos while learning engineering and design technology.

At 6:00 p.m., Prime Time hosted its annual “Lights On Afterschool” community celebration at Clematis by Night, where more than 300 attendees joined Prime Time, its partners and funders, to participate in family-friendly activities.