Lawton Celebrates End of School

The Lawton matches will have a celebration for the arrival of summer vacation at the Goodyear Plant on May 23. The matches will be able to munch on hot dogs, go fishing, and play games.
Have a great summer.
from the staff of Children of Promise-Mentors of Hope

Fall Events Offer Mazes, Lasers, and Bowling

A Huge Thanks to the Steve Owens Foundation, Inc. for his generous contribution to our Match Fall Events. The Norman matches spent an evening at TG Farms picking pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, finding their way out of the corn maze, cruising through the corn fields on a hayride, and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a bonfire. The Oklahoma City and Tulsa matches spent an evening at Laser Quest in each city practicing their Jedi skills and eating dinner to give them energy for another game. The Lawton matches had pizza and an afternoon of bowling. Thanks, again, Steve, for making our fall events really fun.

Great Activity News!!!

Great news!!! Children of Promise-Mentors of Hope has been awarded a grant from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. With this grant Children of Promise-Mentors of Hope will be able to host a Camp-In for all of our matches at the Omniplex. The Camp-In will take place in July and will include a variety of activities for our matches. For additional information on the Camp-In at the Omniplex please call Marion at 405-325-5454. We hope to see all of our matches there!

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation, the metropolitan area's non-profit public charity, was founded in 1969 to work with individuals to meet the charitable needs of the community through the development and administration of permanent endowment funds for non-profit organizations, scholarships and other charities. Through its Community Program Grants, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation funds, initiates and leads program that benefit the community in the area of arts. education, health and human services, beautification and community development.

Summer Activities

Summer is here!! Although the summer can be a very exciting time for children it can also be a time when children feel bored if they are not properly entertained. Luckily, there are programs designed to entertain children during the summer and throughout the rest of the year.

The Home Depot offers free workshops for children ages 5-12. Children who are accompanied by an adult will be able to participate in a workshop. They will receive an orange Home Depot apron, an achievement pin, and they get to take home their project. The Home Depot Kids Workshop takes place on the first Saturday of each month. Call your local Home Depot for further details.

Your local library offers activities throughout the summer including a Summer Reading Program. For more information on summer activities or the Summer Reading Program call your local library. (405) 231-8650 (Oklahoma City), (918) 596-7977 (Tulsa), (405) 701-2600 (Norman), (580) 581-3450 (Lawton).

Check out our blog posted on April 26. 2007 about free summer camps!

For more information about summer activities please feel free to call Erin at (405) 325-5484.

Free Summer Camps

The summer months will be here before we know it. There are several camps in Oklahoma designed specifically for children affected by a parent's incarceration. Each camp offers a wide range of activities for campers. These activities include water activities, games designed to build self esteem and confidence, and arts and crafts to name a few. The camps in Oklahoma are:

New Day Camp
New Day Camp I (ages 8-11) from June 11-June 15
New Day Camp Too (ages 12-14) from July 16-July 20
For more information and registration please call (405) 530-2015 or (405) 530-2014 or visit their website at www.okumcministries.org

New Hope Camp
Camp New Hope (ages 8-11) from July29-August 3
Camp Vision (ages 12-13) from June 23-June 28
Camp Start (ages 14-15) from July 14-July 20
For more information and registration please call Judy Gann at (918) 361-3903 or visit their website at www.newhopeoklahoma.org

Camp Y'Shua
For information on Camp Y'Shua please write to Camp Y'Shua P.O. Box 6272, Lawton, OK 73506 or visit their website at www.vohope.org and click on the link for "Angel Tree Kids Camp".

Match Event

Our Tulsa match event was a great success. Matches from the Tulsa area had a great afternoon eating pizza and skating at Skateland in Tulsa. It was great to see all of your smiling faces!!
Our next match event is in Oklahoma City. The bowling event will take place on Saturday, April 28th from 12:00pm-2:00pm. The event will be held at AMF Windsor Bowling Center located at 4600 NW 23rd street in Oklahoma City. We will have lunch and have a great time bowling. For more information on this and other match events, please contact Erin Tyler at 405/325-5484. We hope to see all of our Oklahoma City area matches there!!

Skating Event

It's time for another match event in the Tulsa area!! Our next match event will take place on Saturday, April 14th from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm at Skateland. Skateland is located at 1150 S. Sheridan Road in Tulsa. We will be serving a slice of pizza and a drink to all of our "Bigs" and "Littles". If you plan on attending the event with your "Little" please let us know by April 11th. We hope to see all of our Tulsa matches at the event!

Happy Spring

Spring is finally here! Let's celebrate the season with a fun and easy craft that is great for children and adults. These wind chimes are easy to make and will make a wonderful sound as the spring time breeze blows into our state.
For the wind chimes you will need:
Scissors
Clear Plastic Lids
Hole Punch
Fishing line
Stick or Dowel
Jingle Bells

1. Cut the rims off of the plastic lids, then help children cut out several leaf shapes from the clear plastic lids.
2. Punch a hold in the top and bottom of each leaf. Tie a 7 to 10 inch length of fishing line to the top of each leaf then hang the leaves, evenly spaced, from the stick or dowel
3. Using the short lengths of fishing line, hang a jingle bell from the bottom of each leaf.
4. To make a hanger, tie the ends of a 6 to 8 inch piece of fishing line to each end of the stick.

For this craft and many other exciting spring time activities please visit familyfun.com! Enjoy!!

Shamrock Cupcakes

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!! What a great day to get together with your "Little" to celebrate! These Shamrock Cupcakes are an easy and fun way to celebrate the day.
To make Shamrock Cupcakes you will need:
Cooled Cupcakes
White Icing
Green Gumdrops or Spearmint Leaves
Small Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter
Rolling Pin

1. Frost a cooled cupcake (baked from your favorite recipe) with white icing.
2. For the shamrock, flatten three gumdrops or spearmint leaves with a rolling pin
3. Use a small heart shaped cookie cutter (about 1 1/2 inches across) to cut a heart from each flattened leaf.
4. Place the hearts on the cupcake to form a shamrock.
5. Cut a stem from the excess of one of the flattened candies and set it in place below the three hearts.
6. Enjoy!!
We hope you and your "Little" will enjoy this recipe. For this recipe and others like it please visit familyfun.com.

Spring Time Games

Spring is here, the weather is beautiful. It's time to get outside with your children or your "little". This frisbee game is a fun and easy way to enjoy the lovely weather. For this game you will need a frisbee, two teams and two goal lines.
1. Begin with each team standing behind its goal line. One team throws the frisbee into the other team's end zone. The receiving team must try to move the frisbee up field by using a series of passes.
2. Each time a player catches the frisbee, they must stop in their tracks and throw to a team mate before taking another step.
3. To score a point the receiving team must complete a pass to a player positioned behind the opponent's goal line. The opposing team is awarded the frisbee following a score, and incomplete pass or an interception. The first team to score 21 wins!

Have fun!!

Game courtesy of familyfun.com. For more fun games like this one visit familyfun.com