NEWBURY PARK : Park Kids Club Encourages Busy Bodies

Alessandro Rossetti of Newbury Park slapped paint-covered hands against a formerly clean sheet of paper.

Alessandro, 11, was spending Wednesday afternoon with the Conejo Recreation and Park District’s Holiday Recreation Club at the community center in Borchard Community Park. Given the materials for finger painting, Alessandro covered his sheet in red and yellow splotches, then dragged his fingers across the middle, smearing everything.

“What do you think of my masterpiece?” he asked fellow participants.

“Barf colored,” commented Ian Miller, 9.

Alessandro and Ian are among 12 children, ages 6 through 12, enrolled in the club. The park district conducts the program weekday afternoons during school vacations to offer area children some organized fun.

“And it gives parents a break for four hours,” said Stuart Hicks, the club’s recreation leader.

Activities arranged on Wednesday included cooking chicken nuggets and playing a game of “trust” in which the children fell backward into Hicks’ waiting arms.

Some club members seemed hesitant about finger painting, eyeing the slimy materials with suspicion. Their hesitation soon faded. Some preferred representational art, crafting images of houses, trees and, in Ian’s case, an Asian yin-yang symbol. Others, like Alessandro, plunged into abstract Expressionism--flinging, dripping and smearing paint with abandon.

“It’s better than sitting at home, sitting around,” Alessandro said.

Soon Hicks was rounding up the club members, telling them to wash their hands before they went outside into the cool winter afternoon for more games. Hicks, a junior at Moorpark College, said the program draws some children back year after year.

After working with children at the center, Hicks said he changed his major from business to education.

“I wasn’t going to do education till I started here,” he said. “I switched when I realized kids are it.”

The program’s next session is scheduled to run April 1 through 5 to coincide with spring break. For further details, contact the community center at 498-3124.