Fiddlehead Center for the Arts, a member of the National Afterschool Program, will promote a “Lights On Afterschool” activity day on Monday, Oct. 22 for its students.

The activities in support of afterschool programs will be one of more than 7,500 such events around the nation – the eighth annual Lights On Afterschool celebration, organized by the Afterschool Alliance. In the United States today, 14.3 million children go home alone after school.

Fiddlehead Center students will highlight three of the significant contributions that afterschool programs make to our communities: keeping kids safe and healthy, inspiring them to learn, and relieving working parents of worries about their children’s activities during afternoon hours.

Fiddlehead Center for the Arts, SAD 15 and Pineland Farms collaborates with a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant supports afterschool homework assistance, mentoring, tutoring, kids on the farm activities and arts and science classes.

The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit public awareness and advocacy organization working to ensure that all children have access to quality afterschool programs. More information on Lights On Afterschool! is available at www.afterschoolalliance.org.