05/14/2026
What a year for the Paul Banks Elementary After School Program!
We are bursting with gratitude and couldn't let this chapter close without shouting out every single person and organization that made SY2025–2026 the most extraordinary year in our program's history.
This year we offered 260 enrichment seats + 50 aftercare spots in the Fall and 250 enrichment seats + 50 aftercare spots in the Spring. We launched aftercare for the very first time. We opened our doors to ALL area K-2 students — welcoming families from , homeschool households, and even our first McNeil Canyon Elementary student. And for the first time ever in our program's history, we compensated Homer's professional business community directly for their expertise. Homer showed up for Homer's kids.
There are far too many incredible individuals to name. Every volunteer, every instructor, every family who enrolled, every person who showed up: this is yours too.
None of it happened without our incredible village.
THANK YOU — your investment in this program was seed funding for something far bigger than an after-school program. The funds we received from the Opportunity Fund Grant along with the generous support of Homer Foundation’s Endowed Ravin Community Fund for Youth Programming and the non-endowed Ravin Family Fund your support launched @[HYPE - Homer Youth Programming Everyday] and created the next chapter of Homer youth programming.
Thank you to Sonja Kontra and @[HYPE - Homer Youth Programming Everyday] in partnership with -Peninsula-Behavioral-Health-Services — your presence in our program this year was transformative. You showed up for our kids with heart, expertise, and a vision for what Homer's youth community can become.
Thank you to (Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies) and our three phenomenal coordinators who held this whole operation together with professionalism, patience, and so much love.
Thank you to for your partnership in making professionally led arts instruction possible for our students — your commitment to keeping the arts accessible to every corner of this community is felt in every class you helped make happen.
Thank you to our incredible direct pay professional vendors — the FIRST TIME in our program's history we paid Homer businesses directly for their expertise:
Frontier Athletics
Grappling
Read Solve Learn Tutoring
(Homer OPUS)
Kjirsten Swanson — Professional Music Instruction
You brought world-class, professional instruction to Homer's children and showed our community what is possible when we invest in our kids.
Thank you to and for your partnership in providing programming — your support of community programs like ours means everything.
And to our tireless PTA After School Program Committee volunteers, our amazing families, and every instructor — paid and volunteer — who showed up session after session, year after year: there are too many of you to name and every single one of you matters.
The Paul Banks PTA's chapter of this story is closing — not with a goodbye, but with a handoff. HYPE — Homer Youth Programming Everyday — picks up the torch from here. Follow @[HYPE - Homer Youth Programming Everyday] and watch for announcements about Fall 2026 After School Programming.
