The first school day’s good-byes trickle out one at a time — like every day — as parents arrive sporadically to pick up their children from LINC.

But when you’re a new kindergartner, like 5-year-old Camryn, hearing your name on the walkie-talkie, and a LINC staffer is walking you alone that first time down the hallway, seemingly leaving new friends behind . . .

You wonder what’s going on.

Dad’s there with a big smile behind his mask to greet her in the front office at Meadowmere Elementary School in the Grandview School District.

“Did you have a good day?” Cody Hastings asks. And his daughter, holding onto a paper crown she decorated as a first-day kindergartner, nestles into her father’s hug, then looks up and speaks barely above a whisper.

“I want to go to LINC,” she says.

“Awwww,” Hastings says, as LINC staff laugh and smile with them. Another beautiful relationship is in the making.

“You’ll be back tomorrow morning,” Hastings says. “Tell ‘em good-bye.” And now everyone is waving. “See you in the morning!”

The promise of a new year, new friends, new games and educational adventures unfolded across some 40 LINC Caring Communities before- and after-school programs Monday in the Kansas City, Hickman Mills, Center, North Kansas City and Grandview school districts.

It’s a bit tricky, said LINC Lead Staff Alique Ramsey at Meadowmere, with so many Covid-19 safety protocols to learn and practice.

“But we are excited to be back,” she said. “The kids missed us. We missed the kids. It’s exciting to see our old kids and how much they’ve grown. It’s exciting to see new kids.”

It was an emotional day for new parents too.

“I was extremely excited,” Hastings said. “And then today, when it was time to drop (Camryn) off, I got real sad. And then about mid-day I thought to myself, I can get used to this, and I got happy again.”

And clearly, he nodded at Camryn and her eagerness to return, “she likes LINC.”

At all of the LINC sites, teams are ready to bring back the full range of activities that were missing for so much of last school year — with mask requirements, cleaning protocols and commitments to full vaccination.

At Carver Dual Language Elementary School in the Kansas City Public Schools, classmates Jazlyn Vazquez and Jacqueline Hernandez, both 10, found out that much of Day One was finding fun ways for students and LINC staffers to get to know each other.

It’s a good way to get over “being nervous,” Jazlyn said.

“We can learn stuff about the LINC teachers,” Jacqueline said. “We got to write things about ourselves. It’s fun to be back.”

That’s how the new year begins, said LINC’s Carver Lead Staff Anthony Jappa.

“We’re finding out what they did this summer, what classes they’re in, what they’re worried about, what they’re looking forward to,” he said. “It’s about getting to know the kids that are new and reconnecting with the kids we’ve had before.”

The joy circulated across the city, beginning with the early morning reunions at the before-school programs at all LINC sites, including Kansas City’s Faxon Elementary School.

Everywhere there were feelings of “excitement and anticipation,” said LINC’s Faxon Lead Staff Markis Samuels.

Rituals were back, like Bernell Miller’s grandchildren posing for a picture outside Faxon before ducking into the front doors — pausing to get their temperature taken and their masks secured.

“I’m happy because they’re happy,” Miller said. “They’re happy to come back because, you know, last year they couldn’t come back.”

LINC is taking full precautions to help families feel secure during the pandemic, said Drake Bushnell, LINC’s Caring Communities Coordinator at Millennium at Santa Fe Elementary School in Hickman Mills.

“The kids want to learn with us . . . and they’re being safe,” Bushnell said. “The kids are pretty good at wearing masks.”

LINC’s “Safe to Serve Workforce” banner hanging inside Santa Fe’s entry means to comfort parents that LINC is doing everything possible to keep everyone safe.

“We’ve been really pushing the vaccine in all our company,” he said. “We’re treating this diligently and safely and that makes everyone more comfortable — not just the staff for the parents as well.”

And the precautions will help keep everyone together, which is good news to 10-year-old Madison Ratcliff at Meadowmere.

“LINC is fun all the time,” she said. “I got to see my friends. Everybody was here . . . It felt good today.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer

Video Edited by Bryan Shepard