Dear Next President,

My name is Cierra, and since I was in 2nd grade I have been going to the C. Waldo Scott center after school.   I am now in the 10th grade and a volunteer there. While volunteering here it has come to my attention that a lot of children do not have access to an after school program. Now I know you probably think that after school is just a place for kids to go while waiting for their parents to get off of work, but it is much more than that. After school provides meals, tutoring, and physical activities that may not be provided for children at school or at home. Taking me for example, at home I am the middle child of five children and my mom being a single parent and working till late at night, she did not have the time to help a lot with me or my siblings school work. Or even sometimes she would be so tired coming home she didn't always have the energy to cook dinner for us so we would just make do ourselves. At the Scott Center we were provided with fully cooked meals and one on one help with school work. In school one person cannot have the teacher's full attention because it's only one teacher teaching a class of like 30, and they cannot just stop the lesson because one person doesn't get it. 

In conclusion, to me after school programs are not only a place for kids to be safe, but it is also a place to learn and have fun and to meet new people. And for me it was a place where I felt like they were my family and that is why I feel like every kid should have the opportunity to have a place like that. So I hope you take this letter into consideration.

Sincerely, Cierra