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SILVER LAKE - Marie Holt has a mission - to encourage more school-age kids to attend midweek church functions by convincing the Warsaw school system to avoid scheduling school activities on Wednesdays.
Holt believes attendance at her church's programs would increase if children and teen-agers didn't have school activities on Wednesdays.
As an example, Holt said recently, one of the programs Silver Lake Wesleyan Church offers kids on Wednesday night regularly attracts as many as 30 kids. Two weeks ago, she said, there were 24 kids there, and four of those were from a cancelled soccer game.
"There are some school systems that specifically don't have activities on a specific night to allow for family night," she said.
Holt wrote a letter to Dr. Lee Harman, superintendent of Warsaw Community Schools, in early October asking that the schools not hold events on Wednesday nights so the students can be encouraged to attend church functions.
Harman responded that because of the "sheer number of school activities" during the year and the number of students (6,300) that it is "impossible to reserve any night from some form of school activities."
He said yesterday, "It's a very complex picture when you start to get into it. ... There are so many activities, both athletic and extracurricular, that other school districts are involved in that I'm afraid to eliminate one night out of our schedule would be virtually impossible."
Still, in an effort to reduce Wednesday night activities, Harman sent a memo to WCS administrators asking them to avoid scheduling activities on Wednesdays, if possible.
"I would personally like to accommodate this because I think churches actually are very important - they're working for the same things we are, to get kids on the right path," Harman said.
Warsaw Community Schools does have a districtwide policy of prohibiting activities on Sundays, he said.
Holt said she called churches in the area and, though some have activities on days other than Wednesday, the majority hold their midweek services Wednesday nights.
"I want to get all the churches to say they would do it on Wednesday night, and I want the school system to be willing to work with the churches," she said.
In a letter to the editor of the Times-Union published Wednesday, Holt appealed to pastors, teachers and parents to help provide one night a week to be set aside for family and church fellowship.
She said she realizes school activities are important, "But I also hope you realize how important having family time together is, along with making sure that these children are being taught Christian values and the Bible."
Harman said Warsaw schools will work with churches as much as they can to avoid schedule conflicts, if possible.
"We're all working to the same end," he said, "to help kids."
