Summer at LINC throws open all the doors from the house of learning and opens children to a wider world.

“Of course we reinforce learning,” LINC Caring Communities Administrator Sean Akridge said, “and this window of time gives us the opportunity to get kids out to see some things they otherwise might not have the chance to see.”

Throughout June, many of the children unloaded from school buses and let loose that first-time stare as they took in the scene of a trampoline park, or exotic zoo, or a theater stage.

The list of experiences included collaborations with the Kansas City Zoo, Kansas City Young Audiences, the Spider-Man show at Union Station, Sky Zone, AMC movie theaters, roller skating, the Kansas City Fire Department and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

Other events were brought in to transform schoolyards into festive places, like LINC’s “Water Wednesdays” at Phillips Elementary School in the Kansas City Public Schools with giant, inflatable water slides, or special Friday cookouts.

“It’s summer, we’re glad you’re here and we want the kids to know that,” Akridge said. “Learning looks different. Learning looks like fun. Learning looks like field trips. Leaning can be creative.”

The Water Wednesdays was just one of many themed events at Phillips Elementary, which also had a sewing club and fashion show and included free haircuts to help children to feel good about themselves, said LINC Caring Communities Coordinator Yolanda Robinson.

“We want them to be the authentic child that they are supposed to be,” Robinson said. “Summer is a great opportunity for students to let their hair down and get away from all their home concerns and issues, and be the best kid they can be.”

Good nutrition is also an important part of LINC’s summer programming. LINC collaborates with its partner school districts and Harvesters to provide meals that might otherwise go missing during the summer months. Meal opportunities are extended to parents and families as well.

Student success and feeling good go together said the barber, DanniCutIt, as she trimmed hair at Phillips.

“Hopefully, the barber said, (a nice haircut) is giving them motivation and inspiring them to keep the good grades going and make them feel good.”

The LINC students at Holliday Montessori School in KCPS spent a lot of their class time learning about continents and science, said Caring Communities Coordinator Lisa Stephenson.

LINC’s partnership with the Kansas City Zoo provided a perfect way to bring it all together.

“The kids have been studying,” Stephenson said. “And what better way is there to end the summer with a culminating activity than to come to the zoo?”

Letting loose with some group physical activity also makes for a full summer, like the two-busload trip LINC’s program at Boone Elementary in the Center School District took to the Sky Zone trampoline park in Lee’s Summit.

This was the first time for many of them, LINC Caring Communities Coordinator Ne’Kye Sheppard said.

“It’s really cool seeing how much fun they’re having,” she said.

And the camaraderie the children build between their classmates and the adults will pay dividends as well come August.

“We try to have fun,” Sheppard said, “and get them ready and hyped for the school year that’s coming around.”

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