Like so many things these days, the plans are a little dicey. The safest way to gather communities is outdoors and LINC’s annual Lights On Afterschool celebrations will toy with late October weather.

That “Miss Frizzle” costume that Jene Counts has in mind from the Magic School Bus book series might not be warm enough.

But the site coordinator for LINC’s Caring Communities program at Millennium at Santa Fe Elementary School will be celebrating books with Hickman Mills families one way or the other in a district-wide event — along with Halloween treats, and music, and the generosity of helping hands.

LINC’s Hickman Mills sites have gathered some 2,000 books to give away Oct. 27, and that’s just part of a celebration, Counts said, “to get kids and parents out to do something fun.”

All across LINC’s sites in Kansas City Public Schools and the Hickman Mills, Grandview, Center, North Kansas City and Fort Osage school districts, Lights On Afterschool celebrations will be marking the shared experiences of communities that have been through so much. (A list of planned events is available at www.kclinc.org/lightson)

Check out the schedule of LINC Lights On events: kclinc.org/lightson

Nationwide, the Afterschool Alliance has been leading the Lights On Afterschool movement since October 2000. The events celebrate afterschool programs and their important role in the lives of children, families and communities.

At LINC sites, the annual autumn celebrations have served to showcase students’ achievements and gather families for food, games and music.

This year, with Covid keeping most of LINC’s school buildings closed, the celebration will have a new flavor.

Faxon Elementary in Kansas City will be putting on a virtual, live-streamed talent show. Other schools will be taking the festive Trunk or Treats of the past and adapt them as drive-through events.

Hickman Mills programs are throwing a joint event outside of Millennium and Smith-Hale schools, and, with the district having begun the school year with all students learning from home online, it will feel a lot like an emotional reunion.

“The hardest part of this pandemic has been the absence of in-person connections,” said Kristin Potter, LINC’s site coordinator at Freda Markley Early Childhood Center.

“I miss hugs from my students and daily conversations with their families,” she said. “I hope this event will bring joy and hope to everyone.”

Some of LINC’s sites — including Grandview schools and Topping Elementary in North Kansas City — have had children back in their classrooms, meaning LINC staff have been able to engage in safely distanced and masked in-person programming.

But for other sites, the staff have kept in touch with phone calls, some house calls when necessary, and a growing slate of online programs with familiar partners like Young Audiences, Mad Science and LINC chess, among others.

Much of the contact with families has been to check on their well-being during the pandemic and offer help and get families connected to services.

“The hardest part of this pandemic,” Counts said, “has been connecting families to community resources. We really want our families to know that there is help if they need it, and that they're not alone in their struggle.”

The Lights On Afterschool events will carry on that community connection, taking the opportunity in the drive-through celebrations to once again see how everyone is doing.

The books at the Hickman Mills event will go three-in-a-bag to every student, every sibling, packaged by grade level. As families pull into line in their cars, they’ll be given a sheet to fill out quick information so the LINC team can order ahead on walkie-talkies to match them with appropriate books and service offerings as they pass through.

LINC’s teams will also give families the option to request a follow-up call to talk more about any needs they might have.

“It’s a great way to engage the community,” Potter said. They are looking forward “to providing an event for families many of us have not seen in six months. I can’t wait to see them light up when they see their LINC teachers.”

She has a costume plan too, also evolving as the day approaches. “A 'Toy Story’ theme,” she said, planning for either the cowboy hero “Woody” or an inflatable “Rex” the dinosaur costume.

One way or the other, LINC’s teams will make it work.

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer