CAES hosts Community Cafe Ice Cream Social

By Cynthia Prairie
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing, LLC

Chester-Andover Elementary School, 72 S. Main St., will be hosting a free ice cream social at the school from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 21, to begin talking with families about what they want to see in a new playground and in other areas that will help the town’s littlest children to be prepared for schooling.

Child care will be provided.

It is the first of a number of Community Cafes in which organizers hope to glean information from numerous community members as they seek a Promise Communities grant to help rebuild the school playground and enhance education and community opportunities for the entire town.

The local Promise Community group is working in conjunction with Pennies for the Playground, which has raised about $25,000 for the replacing the 25-year-old Structure.

The Promise Community Initiative provides support for communities fields such as health, education and community planning “to improve the educational and developmental outcomes for children in their communities.”

An introductory meeting about the initiative was held Monday night at NewsBank Conference Center to introduce a small group of people from various sectors — business, government, community activism, church and education — to the program and begin the necessary information gathering.