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News from the Beach July 15, 2013 What is KBIA to you?

Dear   KBIA is a 103-year-old summer enrichment and recreational program serving children ages 3 to 17. But what is KBIA to you? To local residents, KBIA is the new playground at the beach. KBIA is also summer friends. For others, KBIA is a road race or a cove swim. To visitors, KBIA is sanity during a week’s vacation at the beach. (KBIA is also that babysitter you found at the last moment). KBIA is that mom friend you met while your kids were taking swim lessons, which turned into a dinner playdate with her family.  night by the cove at our annual Seaside Celebration (coming up Saturday) or winning the class ribbon and wedges (also Saturday). Through the years we have found KBIA is many different things to many our different members. What does it mean to you? Please share your “KBIA is” story with us!      Please join us Saturday July Watersports/BBQ/Awards, followed by Seaside Celebration   Please join us at KBIA this Saturday, July 20, for the first of our two annual barbecue and awards ceremonies. The July BBQ and Awards Ceremony will kick off with assorted watersports in the pool for various ages:   9:00 AM:  3- to 4-year-olds 9:30 AM:  5- to 6-year-olds 10:00 AM: 7- to 8-year-olds 10:30 AM: 9- to 10-year-olds 11:00 AM: 11 and older   At noon, KBIA volunteers will serve up a barbecue lunch (hot dogs and hamburgers, lemonade, iced tea, chips and cake.)   At 1 PM, we will begin the awards portion of the day, handing out various KBIA “wedges” and traditional KBIA honors.   Be sure to check next week’s e-newsletter for a list of the winners!   From 6 to 8 PM, please join us on the KBIA lawn for our sixth annual Seaside Celebration. In honor of our “older” members of this KBIA community (21 and older, please), we will be serving up cocktails and light hors d’oeuvres by the shore. Please come celebrate the summer with us. We kindly ask you RSVP by Wednesday, July 17; please email [email protected] or call the office at 967-2180.       CLYNK for KBIA   CLYNK is yet another way to help preserve our beach and help KBIA at the same time! We now have those green bags available at our office for members to pick up, fill with returnables, and redeem them at the Kennebunk Hannaford (or any CLYNK redemption center). Proceeds from KBIA-tagged bags will benefit our nonprofit organization. CLYNK is a Maine recycling company with an innovative bottle redemption system offered exclusively in Hannaford supermarkets in Maine. CLYNK’s mission is to make recycling easier, to offer educational resources focused on recycling and to show customers how their personal recycling positively impacts our environment.      Is your CIT up for the challenge?   Counselor-in-Training coordinator Maureen McEnaney has arranged a special field trip for our youngest leaders. On Tuesday, July 30, our teens will head out for a day on the CIT Ropes Challenge Course at the Sweeyser campus in Saco. Teens should meet at 9 AM by the steps of Strong Cottage at KBIA, where they will return for pickup by 3:30 PM. All CITs enrolled in any week this summer is welcome and encouraged to attend. Intesreted participants may sign up in the office or by emailing Maureen.     This week at KBIA   TWEEN NIGHT: Pizza & Pool Party, KBIA, 6 to 8 PM Tuesday. $24.   MOVIE NIGHT “Monsters, Inc.” at Smith House, 7 to 9 PM Wednesday. $7.   TEEN NIGHT: Portland Sea Dogs vs. Reading Fightin’ Phils. $24.   COVE WALK: 3 to 5 PM Sunday, July 21, meeting at the steps of Strong Cottage at KBIA. $10 per family; open to the public.   OPEN SAIL/KAYAK: 9 AM to 1 PM Sunday, July 21; free and open to members.   Please pre-register for all events at the office so we may accurately order movie tickets for teens and transportation for tweens; families may pay at the door for Movie Night.   LOOKING AHEAD: Back by popular demand, we will once again host G-Force Laser Tag at the beach on Tuesday, July 23! This will be a combined Teen/Tween Night (tweens vs. tweens, perhaps?) and we will need at least 30 pre-registered participants to make this possible. We will also need volunteers to help set up the course at 4 p.m. (we will provide dinner for all volunteers!)

(For a PDF version of our July 8 newsletter, click here.)

We’re off and running

It’s always better at the beach! That’s what we at KBIA think anyway — even when it sprinkles. Today we begin Week 3, and so far this season we have had our share of wet weather. Many of our outdoor adventures are weather-dependent, and we have been forced to cancel a handful of classes because conditions were unsafe (such as thunder of lightening for outdoor activities). In such cases, our office staff makes every attempt to contact registered participants; they are also only a phone call away at (207) 967-2180. To learn  more about our cancellation policy,please see Page 26 in our 2013 Registration Guide.

Record 346 runners turn out for 1K/5K Road Race   What a great day for a race! It was hot and hazy morning at the beach, but we still hosted a record 346 registered fun-runners and racers in our 22nd annual “Day at the Beach” kids fun run and 5K race. Thank you to our many volunteers who made it all possible (they seemed to like those new volunteer t-shirts!) as well as the many friends and family who turned out on the sidelines to cheer on the crowds. You helped us “Keep Calm and Run On!”   Following the race we enjoyed food and fellowship … and trophies! For complete results, click here . For a photo  gallery of the event, click here.   Like our course? Nicole’s Run, hosted on KBIA grounds and following our same 1K and 5K route, will be held Saturday, July 27. All funds raised will benefit Caring Unlimited domestic violence prevention programs, in memory of Kennebunk mother Nicole Oliver.

Join us for lap swim   The pool is the place to be for parents (and grandparents … or anyone over age 15) for some summer swimming. Our pool is open weekday mornings from 7 to 8 AM to adults for morning lap swim. Fee is $50 a week or $200 for the summer.

KBIA store is open!     Need a new coffee mug? Check out our new diner-style mugs, complete with the KBIA logo and burgee, now available in the KBIA store. We have also stocked the shelves with new blue plastic cups. And did you know our KBIA store is complete with everything (sand toys, flip-flops, bathing caps and more) you need for a day at the beach? We also have logo hats, long- and short-sleeved T-shirts, fleeces, umbrellas, sweatshirts, sweatpants and more. The store, located next to the office in Strong Cottage, is open during  regular office hours.

Thank you for running in our 22nd annual “A Day at the Beach” Road Race! We hosted a record number of runners this year (321) and we thank you for spending your morning with us. And the winners are … CLICK HERE!

Week 2 News from the Beach (Click here for PDF version)

Let Freedom Ring!

We will hold classes as usual on Thursday, July 4, and we hope that you will join the Kennebunk community in celebrating the holiday with fireworks over Kennebunk Beach after dark. They are set off between Gooch’s and Middle beaches, though they look great from Mother’s Beach and the KBIA area as well! Happy Independence Day from all of us at KBIA.

American pride on parade

To celebrate Independence Day in our own unique fashion, Nils and our Waterfront Staff will be decking out our fleet and leading a boat parade around the Cove and over by Mother’s Beach, as conditions permit. From the Cove, our “Gollywobblers” class (ages 7 and older) will lead the parade.

 Start time is yet to be determined  (watch our website and Facebook) All KBIA family and friends are invited to bring their own boats and join in the fun — or simply enjoy the “parade” from shore.

Road Race is Sunday; Volunteers needed

We are gearing up for this Sunday’s 22nd annual “Day at the Beach” 5K and 1K Kids Fun Run. Won’t you join us? Registration is still open (click here) and also at the registration desk on Sunday morning. The start and finish line is on Lord’s Point Road, and the course winds though the gorgeous neighborhoods around the beach, finishing along Ocean Avenue.

To successfully pull of this road race, we will need a host of volunteers. New this year, the first 25 volunteers will get a free gold “volunteer” tech shirt as our thank you to you. We can’t do it without you. All we ask is two hours of your time.. No experience is necessary, and as they say, many hands make light (and happy) work! Please email Maureen McEnaney at [email protected]  to volunteer!

Just another perk of membership: Open Swims!

Twice a day we open up the pool for supervised open swims. All children ages 4 and older, enrolled in other KBIA classes that week, may participate. Please join us between 12 and 12:30 PM and then again between 3:30 and 4 PM Monday through Friday. Cannonball!

Got bathrooms? (or just a changing room?)

Need a bathroom break? Two public restrooms are located behind Smith House. If all you need is a place to change into your bathring suit, please use one of the four family-sized changing rooms located in the back of the white Adventures Tent.

Friendly reminders

Any unattended vehicle parked in the drop-off/pick-up zones in front of the pool area may be ticketed by Kennebunk police. Two years ago we created the new zone to ease transition from car to campus, and we appreciate your cooperation in helping us move traffic along in that section. Longer-term parking is available along the fence or at the beach with a Town of Kennebunk beach sticker.

When dropping off your child, please advise the instructor who will pick him/her up. If a child arrives on his/her own, we will release the child on their own at the end of class. For bundled classes, counselors will relay pick-up/drop-off information to the pick-up counselor. 

This week  at KBIA

TWEEN NIGHT: Mini Golf at Wonder Mountain Fun Park and Big Daddy’s ice cream, Wells. 6 to 8 PM Tuesday. $22.

MOVIE NIGHT: “Tinkerbelle and the Great Fairy Rescue” at Smith House, 7 to 9 PM Wednesday. $7.

TEEN NIGHT*: Mini Golf at Wonder Mountain Fun Park and Big Daddy’s ice cream, Wells. 6 to 8 PM
Tuesday. $22.

OPEN SAIL/KAYAK: 9 AM to 1 PM Saturday. Free and open to members.

* Please note Teen Night will be held Tuesday this week because of the July 4 holiday. Register for all events at the office or pay at the door for Movie Night.