Courtesy photo of Kelsey Trotter

The Edgemont YMCA youth enjoyed a trip to DC Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish last summer.

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By Eric Harrold

Staff Writer

EDGEMONT – Kelsey Trotter, Edgemont YMCA Director, recently announced that the program has been awarded $271,636.85 by the Department of Education through the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program is to establish or expand community learning centers that provide students with academic enrichment opportunities along with activities designed to complement the students’ regular academic program.

Centers provide a range of high-quality services to support student learning and development, including tutoring and mentoring, homework help, academic enrichment (such as hands-on science or technology programs), and community service opportunities, as well as music, arts, sports and cultural activities. Centers must provide academic enrichment activities to students that attend high-poverty or Title 1 school-wide schools to help them meet state and local standards in core subjects especially reading, and mathematics. At the same time, centers help working parents by providing a safe environment for students when school is not in session.

During the school year, Edgemont YMCA participants go on one field trip each month and during the summer, the group goes on three to five field trips in total. A ‘good problem’ that Trotter says has come about from the increased participation in the program is that the group has grown in size such that it now needs to use a school bus for transportation as the school’s suburban is no longer sufficient to transport the kids to their destinations.