Summer program enhances education for low-income kids

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- About 15,000 kids from low-income neighborhoods are staying active this summer by reading and staying intellectually and physically busy.

All are participating in a new program called "New Day for Learning." Here's how it works: About 45 community centers and summer groups in underserved neighborhoods are part of a network that will help enhance their education by participating in enrichment activities throughout the summer.

For example, they will learn about science from "Tree Frog Treks," and get the chance to visit the Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park all for free.

Kids involved in the program promise to do the following:

• Exercise 5 days a week
  
• Visits 4 new places over the summer
  
• Eat 3 servings of fruit and vegetables a day
  
• Do 2 summer projects over the summer
  
• Read once a day
  
• Don't drink soda
  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was on hand today to kick off the program which, she says, will be a model for the rest of the nation. "We'll be sure to tell President Obama about it," Pelosi told the children standing on the steps of City Hall.

The director of New Day for Learning, Margaret Brodkin, says low-income children tend to fall back academically while school is out for the summer. "We must keep our children learning throughout the summer," says Sheryl Davis from Mo' MAGIC, one of the groups from San Francisco's Western Addition participating in the program.

Most of the money to fund the program comes from private grants.

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