In past years, Viking Kids Club has struggled a bit with getting students to participate, but as of five years ago, Lutheran Memorial Pastor Russ Lackey has gotten the program moving toward success. While before they only had up to 10 kids per week and the program was slowly fading out, this year it is back up, with up to 40 kids per week, thanks to the help of deacon Angie Larson.

The Viking Kids Club is an after school program for students, grades first through fifth, from Cattell Elementary School. This program takes place from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. every Wednesday at Lutheran Memorial Church on Grand View’s campus.

Together, the group does crafts, storytelling, music and games, and even provides snacks for the kids. They also teach about the love of Jesus to them by sharing a weekly bible verse and showing them how to pray.

“I hope [the kids] experience love from people,” Larson said, “and that sometime later on in life they remember that the church was kind to them.”

This program has changed tremendously over the past couple years, but Larson doesn’t credit herself at all. She says that God was the one that brought the kids to the church and the program.

They currently have 17 volunteers that help out each Wednesday, most of whom are students from Grand View. Angie said she first reached out to people who she thought would be good leaders and enjoy their time spent there.

A majority of the students that volunteer at Viking Kids Club do it for credit in their Core Seminar II class, but they did have other options. According to Maria Mantilla, a junior and volunteer for the program, students in Core Seminar II need 15 hours of community service project work in order to get a passing grade.

As well as the Cattell Elementary students, Larson hopes that Grand View students will also learn something from their experience with Viking Kids Club.