This summer, the City of Philadelphia is encouraging everyone to enjoy a fun, safe summer. Most importantly, the City and public-private partners are offering fun summer programming for our young people. The “Fun, Safe Philly Summer” campaign is the city’s initiative to give young people more activities and programs to get involved in during the summer.

There are thousands of free opportunities to get involved, stay active, and have fun in Philly this summer that includes :

• Visiting your local branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia
• Eating Free through the Summer Food Service Program
• Going swimming at one of the 70 free city pools
• Volunteer in the Service Challenge

As of July 18th, the City opened eight outdoor pools, in addition to the five indoor pools which are open year-round, and will continue to open between four and ten pools each weekday until Monday, July 2nd, at which time all seventy public, out-door swimming pools will be operational for the duration of the season.

In addition to all city pools opening this summer, the mayor announced the Summer Food Service Program. This program, which begins on June 18, provides breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the summer to kids that qualify for a free school lunch.

The “Fun, Safe Philly Summer” campaign is sponsoring the Summer Reading Challenge and Summer Service Challenge. Challenge participants can pick up and drop off forms at any branch of the Free Public Library. The challenges are:

• The Summer Reading Challenge is open to youth ages 5 to 18. Participants will read three books and complete book reports.
• The Summer Service Challenge is open to older youth, ages 14-18. Participants will volunteer at least three service events, completing no less than 10 service hours.

Participants, who complete the challenges, will be entered in to a raffle drawing including donated tickets from the Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Philadelphia Zoo, as well as American Idol concert tickets and WWE Wrestling tickets. Each winner will reach two tickets. The grand prize is two tickets to Power 99’s 30th Annual Powerhouse concert in October.

Parents and caregivers – enroll your children in a program to enrich their lives, keep them safe and let them have fun!

For more information, please visit Philadelphia’s youth programs website. This website will serve as an interactive source for information about the available summer youth programs – organized by age and area. There are thousands of opportunities for children, tweens and teens this summer. Visit this website for programs in your neighborhood and help with program enrollment.

To find your local Free Library of Philadelphia Branch please visit http://www.freelibrary.org/

For a list of all local Philadelphia City Pools please visit http://www.phila.gov/recreation/sports/Pool_Locations.html and  list of all Spraygrounds please visit http://www.phila.gov/recreation/Spraygrounds.html

To help keep our pools open please donate to the Splash & Summer FUNd.