Students for International Mission Service (SIMS)

Outlook, Spring 2000

Community Kids Connection
By Jim Rook, School of Public Health

A few years ago a group of ambitious and concerned Loma Linda University students started Community Kids Connection (CKC), and the outreach program has developed into a community and University-wide favorite.

Although Students for International Mission Service coordinates CKC, it continues to be a program led by students from LLU's six schools. CKC takes place on Sabbath mornings each quarter at SACÜNorton clinic in San Bernardino. It is a two-hour program and is free and open to the neighborhood children near the clinic.

CKC takes place on Sabbath mornings each quarter at SACÜNorton clinic in San Bernardino. It is a two-hour program and is free and open to the neighborhood children near the clinic.

Approximately 20 to 25 kids between the ages of 3 and 12 years show up anxiously awaiting the morning's events.

Sometimes the volunteers in each group will go to local homes in the neighborhood and invite new kids to join CKC.

LLU students sign up to plan and lead each program, which follows a theme and usually involves singing, storytelling, arts and crafts activities, games, and a snack.

The students are responsible for developing the weekly program, and SIMS provides the supplies and support.

A main theme is selected for each quarter, and each group of enthusiastic students creatively relates that theme into the CKC program they plan and lead.

Nutrition was the theme for the fall, 1999, quarter gatherings.

Students representing the Schools of Public Health (department of nutrition), Dentistry, and Nursing, as well as the Campus Hill Church of Seventh-day Adventists youth group incorporated nutrition into their programs.

The theme for winter 2000 is "What do you want to be when you grow up?î

The children will be encouraged to develop career goals and explore their ambitions at an early age. It is important for kids to feel supported about their choices.

In addition to the regular activities, each group that leads out will be responsible to bring in a career professional to address the kids.

Even though CKC is for kids in San Bernardino, it is just as rewarding for the students and volunteers who lead and participate in it. The program has become so popular that kids and students are waiting at the gate on Sabbath mornings to begin the program!

Editor's note: Jim Rook is a SIMS student coordinator and studying international health at the School of Public Health.

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