Glenwood City United Methodist Church offers a place for the “KOOL” kids to hang out after school

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — In small towns, churches are often called upon to provide safety, learning and social activity for children outside of school. One Glenwood City church offers a Wednesday afternoon group for local students.

Glenwood City’s United Methodist Church has held KOOL (or “Kids of Our Lord”) for the past 27 years as a way for children in kindergarten through to fifth grade to learn more about Christianity and the Bible.

That they get to eat good food, hang out after school with friends and sing songs is secondary to the thirst of some of the children to learn.

“We have had a few kids this year ask if they could have Bibles like their friends,” Pastor Jan Beutin said.

Group leader Bonnie Walters said the current group of 15 kids seems to get along well and is interested in learning. She said there are several children who attend the KOOL after-school group who are not often seen in church on Sundays.

The group was started by Barb Meser in 1994 and has held steady with attendance of 15 to 20 young students every year since.

“Yes, over the years we have shifted (in attendance), but overall we’ve been pretty consistent,” Walters said.

Students arrive at the church after school and are fed a snack before they start singing or working on craft projects. Pastor Jan leads the group in a prayer before everyone eats.

After everyone has consumed the day’s snack, which is provided on a rotating basis by members of each congregation forming the Glen Hills Parish of the United Methodist Church, Pastor Jan leads the children in a few songs. It is something that appeals to her as a former music teacher, and Walters said she always learns something from the pastor.

“She (Beutin) is very good with the history of the songs they sing, so she tells them about the histories as she teaches the songs,” Walters explained.

On the day the interview for this article was conducted, the fifth-grade students and a few fourth-grade students headed upstairs after singing to work on a song they will play on the hand chimes for a Lenten service.

“We are having them play a song during the first service hosted here at the Glenwood City church,” Walters stated.

She also said the older students will spend part of their afternoon baking pretzels the day of the first Lenten service in Glenwood City. The pretzels will be served with homemade soups for a communal meal prior to the service.

While the older students were upstairs, the younger ones stayed down in the church basement with Walters’ son, Jim. He assisted the younger kids with taking photographs on an iPad to be used for Valentine’s Day cards that the children made. The cards were then sent out to community members and other children in the group via the postal service.

Jim Butles is currently using his time spent with KOOL for his community service hours as an honors student at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, but Bonnie disclosed that he has consistently helped with the group since he aged out of it.

The group mainly consists of kindergarten through fifth-grade students, but there have been instances where participants stayed until they were in seventh grade before leaving the group to participate in confirmation classes on Wednesdays.

When asked what they liked about the group, some voices said they like to hang out with their friends, while others said they like learning new things. Young Zach DeWitt said he likes to sing and see Pastor Jan while he is at KOOL each week.

The group typically starts in September or October each year and runs until after Easter the following spring. It meets at the UMC in Glenwood City from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. during the school year.