Donguri Club
From “Kazenoko Letter” No.381 - October 2009
| I am often asked from guardians at our daycare center, “What is Donguri (acorn) Club?” I’d like to tell you about it since I haven’t been able to explain about it before. This club is for school-aged children who graduated from Kazenoko Hoikuen. The history is very old, and it was organized in September, 1974. We tested an after school care program for children who graduated from our daycare center during the summer vacation that summer. Dozens of school-aged children who didn’t have any place to go during the long summer vacation spent time in one of the rooms of our daycare center. After the summer vacation, children and their guardians went hiking to Hattori Ryokuchi park on the first Sunday in September because they were missing the group. The guardians were talking after eating lunch. Then one mother suggested, “I’m always busy and don’t have much time to be with my child. Why don’t we create an opportunity among working parents to get together and go hiking or something at least once a month?” All guardians present went along with the idea and named it the “Donguri Club”. Later on, rules and regulations were made and applicants requested. We had a surprising situation with over 60 applicants in the next month of October. It was beyond the power of the mothers to handle such an amount of people. Therefore, the fathers stepped up to be the club managers and continued to plan and hold various events once a month with the help of student volunteers. Rreviews on activity contents were made five years ago, and it was decided not to hold an event for all members once a month. This has changed into more voluntary activities which are divided into five groups; Nature School, Adventure, Buddy-buddy, Excited, and Pocket. However, the essentials of the organization haven't changed, and the fact that the guardians run this club is still the same. It’s probably rare to see across the country such club run by guardians that have continued for 43 years. The office of “Donguri Club” is in Kazenoko Jidokan, and staff from Jidokan and Hoikuen give various support. |
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