Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/meet-cover-director-barbara-fuentes-spare-time-fun-centre-vancouver-british-columbia/5009875/
"We can't get children to leave once they hit age 13," observes director Barbara Fuentes. While many school age child care programs struggle to maintain the interest of children over the age of 10, Spare Time Fun Centre has been extraordinarily successful in engaging children of all ages.The heart and soul of Spare Time is Barbara Fuentes. She and a group of parents from the David Lloyd George School in Vancouver launched Spare Time in 1974 as one of the very first school age programs in British Columbia. Barbara participated actively as a parent volunteer in the program, and within a few months she was appointed program supervisor.
Over the years, Barbara expanded Spare Time from a basic program serving 12 children to a multifaceted program serving nearly 100 children. In addition, she helped start and coordinate six other school age programs in Vancouver.
At the point that Spare Time was operating programs in seven locations, Barbara realized that she was spending most of her time on administrative matters, which she didn't enjoy, and little time directly being with the children, which she enjoyed the most. Therefore, she returned control of six of the programs to the communities ...