- April 24, 2024
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With growing opportunities to help struggling kids in Ormond Beach, the Great Kids Explorer Club is reaching out for more financial support.
Oscar is a second grader with parents that speak mostly Spanish. The language barrier caused him to goof on in class and quickly fall behind. Through the help of the Great Kids Explorers Club, Oscar went from failing every subject to getting on grade level in all subjects.
Success stories like Oscar’s are the norm for the students that go through the Great Kids program, an early intervention program targeting at-risk students from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Started in 2001, the nonprofit partners with local schools, churches and civic organization to bring the free after-school to kids who need it the most. Students are selected by the schools to be entered in to the program.
“We find that many children don’t do well in school because they didn’t enter with the skills needed,” Executive Director Sandy Rakes said. “As early as kindergarten and first grade they can have challenges because they lose interest and give up.”
Like the struggle of most nonprofits, money is always an issue for this organization. Currently they have five locations, four of which are in local churches and cost nothing. They currently are only able to pay for one location in Ormond Beach. The lack of funds makes for a lack of space and time to allow more kids into the program.
“We can’t do galas,” Rakes said. “We don’t have that kind of money. We don’t have those kind of connections. We’re not United Way. We’re not the Frances and we understand that. We’re just a group of ordinary people that come together to do extraordinary things for the kids.”
One of their biggest fundraisers is taking place at Pirates Adventure Golf in Daytona Beach May 18. The Great Kids Annual Spring Mini-Golf Fun Day typically raises $10,000 for the organization, which is a chunk of cash they rely on.
“We really need to expand our supporters,” Rakes said. “We need to expand this next school year and we need to raise $30,000-$50,000 above our budget to do that. If we had the financial backing, we could open up two to three programs every year.”
Rakes said the organization has plenty of interested partners that she would like to get started on opening. She can’t get the ball rolling until she has the money to do so.
“I am so wanting to go forward,” Rakes said. “We just need more people out there to know about us.”
