When The Daily Herald spoke with Pyramid Healthcare Director of Education John Dibert, he said the first goal of the program was met. The goal was to get the kids to come to school.
In July, with school officially out for the year, there are nearly 40 kids participating in the summer program at Greentree Village in Bald Eagle.
“The summer program has exceeded what we had originally expected,” said Betty Streightiff, director of the Greentree Village facility. “As the school year was drawing to a close, I was starting to see the kids be more and more interested in the summer program that we were offering.”
The program in the summer doesn’t have the education component.
“We do a lot of community service projects,” said Streightiff. “We go three times a week down to Rails to Trails and clean up,” said Streightiff. “We clean the brush off the trail and do other things to help make the trail better. On Fridays we go to the Humane Society and do volunteer work up there. The kids clean the kennels and other things to help the Humane Society. We have kids come here at times to just take part in the community service functions that we do.”
Part of the therapeutic environment being taught at the Greentree Village facility is to give back to the community, but there are fun activities included in the summer program.
“The kids went to an Altoona Curve game and we were told that they were the most well-behaved group of students at the game,” said Streightiff. “We are thankful to the Tyrone School District because they let us use the athletic fields to play softball and kickball. We have two teams in the Blair County Youth Softball League. These kids are busy when from the time they get here until they leave.”
The goal is to bring structure to the lives of kids who have not had it before.
“It is a structured program,” said Streightiff. “These kids don’t have to be here and we have nearly 40 kids who have asked to come here this summer. It shows that they have seen a change for the better in their lives and want it to continue.”
Trust is what is making the efforts of the staff at Greentree Village work.
“We are earning the trust of the kids and parents,” said Streightiff. “They know we care about them. We want them to get better. We are seeing results. We had five kids from our group home attend the Tyrone School District last year and two of them made the honor roll. We would not be able to see the results we are seeing without the work of our great staff and the hard work and commitment of these kids.”
The kids at Greentree celebrated the Fourth of July yesterday with a BBQ at the village and went to DelGrosso’s Park for the fireworks.
