EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — After driving through a downpour to take her son to day camp, Darleen Reyes told camp administrators the rain would have kept her away but her son insisted on going.
As she marked her son’s name present on a clipboard at the Boys & Girls Club camp one day last week, she laughed about braving a flash flood warning to get there.
Before kissing his mother goodbye, Aiden Cazares, 8, explained to a reporter, “I wanted to see my friends and not just sit at home.” Then he ran off to play.
Aiden’s one of 1.4 million children and teenagers around the country who have been attending after-school and summer programming at a Boys & Girls Club, the YMCA or a public school for free thanks to federal taxpayers. Congress set aside money for the programs to provide academic support, enrichment and child care to mostly