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What are we all about?
The Manchester Summer Playground program returns this year with Co-Directors Don Towle and Heather Snider DePriest. The Summer Playground Program is a drop in program that features a variety of sports, games, special events, arts & crafts, field trips and much more. The program is open to children who are entering Kindergarten up through Eight Grade and is open to both residents and non-residents.
The Summer Playground Program is not a camp, but a daily drop in program that allows children to pick and choose the activities that they want to participate in. The Manchester Summer Playground has been a Manchester tradition for almost 100 years. Our records indicate that the “Playground” was formed in the 1920’s at Story High School and had been run by the School Department until 2002. From 2002 to the current date, the program has been overseen by the Town’s Parks & Recreation Department. The program has made many improvements over the years to accommodate the needs of today’s families.
The Summer Playground program is located in the back of the Memorial Elementary School next to the new footbridge. This space was originally developed for the Summer Playground in 1957 when the Memorial School addition was built.
The original mission was to provide a safe environment for the children of Manchester, to stay active and participate in group activities while making summer memories that last a lifetime. Today that mission remains the same. The Summer Playground continues to offer summer fun at a reasonable price leaving no families behind with the option to apply for scholarships. We are happy to say we also provide meaningful summer employment to our local teenagers, many of whom attended the program as a child.
Basic Information
- Dates of Operation: The program runs Mondays thru Fridays for eight weeks from the day that school gets out thru the second week of August.
- Morning Playground opens at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 12:00 p.m. Please do not bring your child(ren) to playground early, unless you plan to remain with them. Also, please be prompt for pick-up. All counselors are dismissed by 12:15 p.m.
- Night playground runs on Monday – Thursday evenings from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
- Age Eligibility: Children must be five years old or entering Kindergarten. Counselors in Training (CIT’s) must be 15 years old Playground Counselors are at least 16 years old.
- Please send your child to Playground with sun block and/or bug repellent applied. Water bottles are also highly encouraged.
- Children should dress in casual play clothes and sport shoes or sneakers each day. FLIP FLOPS ARE NOT ALLOWED!
- Please put your child’s name on EVERYTHING he/she brings to Playground.
- Rainy Days: Day playground will run on rainy days, however; if bad weather occurs in the evenings, then night playground is cancelled.
For questions regarding the Manchester Summer Playground contact Heather Snider DePriest at sniderh@manchester.ma.us, or at 978-526-2019 or Don Towle at 978-526-1062.
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