(Posted March 30, 2001)

Three Juniata College students will be staffing an art project table at the Huntingdon McDonald's restaurant on Route 22 so local children can draw and create an original artwork to promote The Week of the Young Child, April 1-7.

The art project table will be available Tuesday, April 3, and Wednesday, April 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. and Friday, April 6 from noon to 2 p.m. The Juniata students manning the table are: Wendy Bortz, a junior from Lincroft, N.J.; Jaime Brown, a junior from Annapolis, Md.; and Kevin Moore, a senior from Webster, N.Y. All three students created the project in their "Families and Teachers" class.

At the restaurant, children can create a portrait or draw what they want to be when they grow up. Adults will be given a Week of the Young Child ribbon.

The Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children of Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest early childhood education association, with over 103,000 members and a network of nearly 450 local, state, and regional affiliates.

The purpose of the Week of the Young Child is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. NAEYC first established the Week of the Young Child in 1971, recognizing that the early childhood years (birth through age 8) lay the foundation for children's success in and later life. The Week of the Young Child is a time to plan how we--as citizens of a community, of a state, and of a nation--will better meet the needs of all young children and their families.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.