PROGRAM HELPS KIDS THROUGH SUMMER

The 50 children sitting on the floor of the Cape Girardeau Civic Center are loudly and enthusiastically counting together in Chinese.

During the course of this summer's Rainbow Village educational program, they will learn to count in Swahili, Korean and Spanish as well.

The program, funded through the state Department of Public Safety, is aimed at maintaining the children's reading, writing and math skills over the summer while keeping them out of trouble. About 60 black and white children in kindergarten through sixth grade are signed up for the Monday-through-Thursday-morning activities.

Rainbow Village is also a free summer camp. "This is so they'll have something to remember," said director Sheldon Tyler. "These kids will never make a camp. They don't have the funds.

On Monday, a magician will perform and those who have summer birthdays will get cupcakes with icing in their favorite color. Tuesday is "Get Wet Day." Everyone is instructed to bring shoes and clothes that can get wet. Water balloons, hoses and squirt guns will be in order that day.

In past weeks, state Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, has visited, along with community patrolmen Charlie Herbst and Ike Hammonds. There have been firefighters and presentations about Native Americans, smoking and the difficulties of teen-age motherhood.

One day last week, kung fu expert and minister Anthony Williams taught the children the basics of defending themselves against an attack. The basics are these:

1. Run

2. Scream

3. Fight back (then run).

The 6-foot-9-inch Williams, whose nickname is "The Warrior," dwarfed his pupils. But while demonstrating a self-defense technique called "The Butterfly," he gently reassured them that they could free themselves from anyone.

"It's learning how not to fight," Williams said. "We have enough violence on the streets as it is."

Tyler recruited the children from Cape Girardeau's grade schools. "I went to the schools and asked for a list of kids they would benefit," he said. Local black churches provide the transportation.

The name Rainbow Village is half acronym (Respect, Attitude, Individuals and their differences, Nurture, Belonging, Order, Work ethics) and half based on the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child."

The latter philosophy is evident in the 15 teen-agers and nine adult aides who volunteer time to help supervise the children.

Two of the volunteers, Julia Ewing, 13, and Kimberly Dunning, 14, were readying a saxophone and clarinet duet for the younger children after the kung fu demonstration. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was their selection.

Tyler is the only certified teacher at Rainbow Village, but the other adults lead seven individual classes at the grade level the students just completed.

Their aim is to reinforce the skills the students already have.

Before starting the program, one of many Tyler has created in the city through a three-year federal grant, he had noticed that his own son seemed to do poorly at the beginning of the school year after spending an unstructured summer.

"It must work," the 33-year-old Tyler said. "My son went from a C and B-minus student to an A and B-plus student."

One of the adult aides is Rose Parker, whose third-grader daughter, Lakeshia Lawrence, died last year. The tragedy was mourned by all of May Greene School and throughout the black community.

This summer, Parker has been taking off one day a week from the beauty salon she and her husband own to teach third-grade reading and math.

"It's keeping me around kids my daughter's age," she said. "A lot of the kids I have here were her friends."