SELINSGROVE – It will be a busy spring for the Snyder County Coalition for Kids. Kelly Feiler is community mobilizer for the coalition and said they have plenty going on in the coming weeks and months.
Feiler was a guest on WKOK Sunrise and gave an overview the Snyder County Coalition for Kids, “We are Communities that Care organization that follows a model where we study the data that kids give us through testing that they do at school about what their main concerns are in the community. Our organization is addressing drug abuse, anti-social behavior and the need for some positive social opportunities for youth, and especially teens, in our community.”
Snyder County District Attorney Mike Piecuch says the coalition is a positive addition for the county, “Studies show through the Communities that Care model that promoting these types of programs reduces the reliance on the criminal justice system and the Children and Youth system for kids, so that is the outcome that we are looking for.”
One big project the coalition is working on is the new community center planned for Selinsgrove, “We are in the phase of acquisition right now. We have probably a couple of more weeks to really actively raise funds, so that we can go forward and outright pay for that Christ United Methodist Church building, on Eighth and Mill Street in town. As soon as we have done that, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, then we can go straight into the renovation phase, where we want to clear it out as much as possible, and make it as comfortable as possible, so that by late summer we can have kids in their spending some time.”
The community center will feature after school activities and programs and much more. And Feiler says they have a couple of upcoming events for kids in the region, “April the 9th, we will be out at the MACC, the Middlecreek Area Community Center, and we will have the fire companies there, the District Attorney will be there talking about social media safety. There will be some personal self-defense or some stranger danger awareness, the parole/probation department with some safety information along with Children and Youth and then we will have the same thing again on April 16 at Burns Tae Kwon Do in Selinsgrove.”
Details can be found on their Facebook page at Snyder County Coalition for Kids. You can hear more from Feiler and Piecuch from WKOK Sunrise online at www.wkok.com. (Ali Stevens)