Summer program 'brings the world' to youngsters at Natrona Community Park

From Phipps to Warhol to the Carnegie Museum, children in Natrona can tour the city’s biggest attractions this summer without ever leaving their backyard.

“Our goal is to make learning fun, which keeps children coming back,” said Bill Godfrey, president of the advocacy group Natrona Comes Together.

His group has partnered with Springdale-based Fun and Freedom and Tarentum-based Faith Community Partners (FCP) to ramp up the summer fun for children who might not otherwise get to travel to cultural hot spots, Godfrey said. An $8,000 grant from the Grable Foundation will cover costs of “bringing the world” to the small Harrison neighborhood.

“The kids say that they really look forward to the classes and it’s the most fun they have all summer,” Godfrey said.

A glimpse of the 19th annual Natrona Summer Children’s Program finds a jam-packed schedule at the community park that includes visits from Pittsburgh Zoo animals, pizza parties, days for take-home gardening, tie-dyeing and mad science.

Festivities kicked off last week with dinosaurs and oil painting. Natrona residents Stella Day, 11, and Jamyia Kelly, 7, let their creativity loose with help from art instructor Alison Babusci, who graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City and has 30 years of experience teaching through the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

“Being creative, for kids, is a way they get to make their own choices,” Babusci said. “You want to add a jelly fish to your painting? Go ahead. Art can be a healing tool and amplify any other learning.”

For the kids, painting a seascape wasn’t that deep.

“It’s just fun,” Jamyia said.

Dave Rankin, FCP executive director, said the partnership this summer between the three groups has set the stage for a great experience.

“There’s a new synergy and the lineup is quite impressive,” he said. “For Bill to arrange representatives to come from the Carnegie Science Center, Phipps Conservatory and other organizations is quite something. He rounds out the schedule with things like music, a petting zoo, tie-dye activities, silk-screen and gardening projects, and visits from the local police and volunteer fire companies — all things that the kids love.”

The programs are open to all ages.

Children can arrive an hour early for a free, healthy lunch that includes a sandwich, fruit and treat. Meals are served Mondays through Fridays.

Rankin said he invited senior citizens from Dalton’s Edge Apartments to volunteer in hopes of creating cross-generational bonds.

“This is bringing people back to the park,” said Patty Babinsack, co-founder of Natrona Comes Together and a lifelong resident. “It’s making people want to be here.”

Recent Highlands graduates Clarissa and Mich Ankney grew up playing at the park along River Road.

Both have signed on for the summer program with the intent to create special memories like the ones they had.

“I remember my dad would walk us down here, and there would be people playing flag football,” said Clarissa, 19.

She is serving as site supervisor for the lunch program, dubbed the Kid’s Meal Network. Food is dished up through the same program at Central Presbyterian Church in Tarentum and Sheldon Park in Natrona Heights.

Her brother, Mich, 20, will serve as social media supervisor, spreading word of activities on Facebook, Instragram and other sites.

“If you want kids to come down, then you have to put it on social media,” he said. “It’s kind of cool to be helping my hometown as an adult. I’d like to see this blossom.”

In addition to culture, summer scheduling will focus on reading, art and sports.

Kathy “Coach K” Kotlinski, assistant director of Fun and Freedom, said her program encourages teamwork and healthy activity through basketball, hockey, kickball and other sports.

“You don’t know someone’s home life,” she said. “We want to tell them to forget everything else for this hour and that they are safe and can have fun.”

On several Saturdays — June 22, July 13 and July 27 — Fun and Freedom will host Picnics in the Park from 5 to 7 p.m. There will be food, music and games for all ages.

“This keeps them active,” Kotlinski said. “There was a lot of socialization lost during the pandemic, and this benefits them instead of playing video games all day.”

Godfrey said the main goal of the program is to invest in children.

“Our kids are coming back year after year, and now parents that were in our programs are bringing their young children,” Godfrey said. “Many of them say how our program changed their lives.”