Pastor Baglyos is the executive director of the St. Barnabas Center for Ministry where a joint ministry venture of the Lower Susquehanna Synod, the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and St. Paul Episcopal Church provides a setting for a summer program for neighborhood children.

The Rainbow Summer Program, which began in 1993 as a half-day program for kindergarten through sixth graders, was revamped in 1998 to include only children ages nine through twelve for a full day of care.

Through interviews with neighborhood parents and care givers, a task force determined there was a real need for a program that would provide full day care for those children who were too old for a babysitter but not old enough to be alone all day.

“We felt these older children were really vulnerable and even at-risk because there were not sufficient options for how they would spend their summer weeks,” said Pastor Baglyos. “We were concerned that without adequate supervision these young people might become easily influenced, easily led by others who might not have their best interests at heart.”

The program begins at 8:30 a.m. each day, although says Baglyos, “There were many days in the past when I would arrive at 7:30 and there would be a little person out on the step waiting for somebody to open the door.”

From starting time until 4 p.m., the day runs non-stop breakfast, circle time, Bible study, recreation, lunch, field trip, crafts, and quiet time.

Bible study is done in the form of stories that can be illustrated in one way or another, an “experiential approach to learning,” says Baglyos. For example, when last year’s group studied Moses, students crafted babies from paper and discarded men’s shirts, put their babies in baskets, and floated “Baby Moses in water.” When they studied the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, participants “wandered through the gardens at nearby Italian Lake and returned to the center to eat sweets that represented milk and honey.”

When one year’s program ended, students were asked to evaluate what they liked and did not like. “To the child, they would say ‘Be sure to have Bible study next year,’” said Pastor Baglyos, adding that Bible study was one place where the children felt connected. “We talked a lot during the summer about each of us being a child of God and about what that means.”

In addition to Pastor Baglyos, the program is staffed college-age counselors and several teen counselors. While the counselors provided the day-to-day supervision, volunteers are a necessary link in the program. Different congregations provide breakfasts and lunches, individual volunteers provide snacks, several persons come in to lead music-related activities, and on occasion a trained counselor will work one-to-one with a troubled child.

On a particularly quiet winter day last year, Pastor Baglyos had time to reflect on the Summer Rainbow Program. “Oh, I love it. I really love it,” she says with a smile, “but it’s too quiet up here right now. After last summer, I never thought I’d say that.”

For more information about the St. Barnabas Center for Ministry contact Pastor Sharon Baglyos at the St. Barnabas Center for Ministry, 248 Seneca Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110-1740.
Call (717) 232-3644.