We’ve got witnesses. Children and LINC staff who were there tell the tale of explosions, bubbling concoctions and seeming magic that was the first year of LINC’s in-house S.T.E.A.M. team.

“LINC approaches summer with a go-get-’em attitude.” So goes the energy across before and after school programs with all of LINC’s school district partners and special Freedom Schools as hundreds of children saw their summer education spiced with exciting field trips and celebrations.

It might be a sullen child alone, head tucked down in the morning. Or an anxious child, lashing out at other children at the end of a school day. They can move hidden within the swirl of a busy classroom, and LINC is working with the Kansas City Health Department to help see to it that these children are seen, understood and comforted.

On the surface, the night was all about fun — bus rides together to classic sports gyms and event spaces, stopping at a corner store for 3 a.m. for treats, gaming into dawn. But there was another layer, maybe not so obvious to the boys . . .

The experience is inspiring to the Pitcher community and to the other Caring Communities sites that are trying to empower their neighborhoods. “Shout out to the site councils,” LINC’s Andrew Smith said. “You have a chance to get out into the community and do some cool things.”

The LINC Morning Star meal program is part of a statewide network providing free food for children under 18. An online map and text number provides access to hundreds of locations in Missouri.

Earth Day opens a lot of opportunities for things LINC loves: Families, fun, science, future thinking and lots of learning.

And baby chicks.

Like many of their LINC workmates picking up pickleball paddles on this weekday morning, Alicia Byers and Sherry Shumate-Jones were taking their first swings at the game. But they had children on their minds — the students back at their Caring Communities sites who, like them, would soon be encouraged to play the court game in their LINC after-school programs.

“LINC wants our students using their mind in productive ways. This helps them improve in their school studies, too.”