Community Corner

Heat Outside Keeps Kids Inside

Cranford Community Center brings playground program indoors.

Normally outside in the summer weather, children busily play in the Community Center lobby today.

The thermometer moving ever-upward, Director Andrea Kreneck brought in the participants of the Playground program, which serves over 300 children this summer, as a preventive measure. 

She also brought them inside yesterday, after watching the Weather Channel in the morning, which warned of temperatures rising above 100 degrees.

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The Community Center has been pulling Playground participants out of the hot sun for a few summers now – usually if the weather reaches above 95 degrees.

"It's a standard thing for every year, we've been doing this for a couple years now," she said. "It's a health, safety precaution so we don't have any serious cases of heat stroke or dehydration, or anything like that."

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The Playground program usually takes place in four kid-friendly places outdoors: The playgrounds of Brookside Place School, Lincoln Park, Mohawk Park and Orange Avenue School. Activities arranged for participants include craft sessions and sports.

On days like these, Kreneck added that she instructs her children "to bring lots of water with them." A couple of long tables line the lobby, jammed with snacks and water that children brought to tide them through the day.

In addition, the Cranford Community Center is considering canceling its afternoon tennis program today, which takes place outside on the courts, she said.


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