Salvation Army Helping Children And Families During Walkout

<p>A lot of parents have asked the question, “What am I going to do with my kids if there’s no school?” The Salvation Army has an answer for many of them.</p>

Monday, April 2nd 2018, 6:18 pm

By: News On 6

Salvation Army Helping Children And Families During Walkout

A lot of parents have asked the question, “What am I going to do with my kids if there’s no school?”

The Salvation Army has an answer for many of them.

The Salvation Army’s Boys and Girls Clubs in the Tulsa area are open for the duration of the school shutdown to give working parents an option.

Captain Ken Chapman says, “we are taking it day by day. We have no idea how long this will last.”

Chapman says they’ve been preparing for this for the past three weeks, finding, clearing, and training volunteers.

The service is free to those who need it, but it is costing the Salvation Army about $18,000 per day to keep the six centers open.

There are a couple of activity rooms, gymnasium, and poo. They are showing movies and generally keeping the kids busy. And there’s food.

“We are making sure, through a partnership with Tulsa Public Schools, that we are feeding them breakfast and lunch,” said Chapman.

There are also donated snacks as well.

At the Boys and Girls Club in Broken Arrow there are about 200 kids. Across all six centers there are about 1,000. The Salvation Army expects the number to go up if the shutdown drags on.

All in all, the Salvation Army says, the first day went off without a hitch.

The Boys and Girls Clubs are open each day of the teacher walkout from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.