After-school program moves into former Viki's Montana Classics building

The ACES after-school program has a new home.

ACES, which serves some 200 kids from Bigfork and Swan River schools, relocated from the United Methodist Church to the building that formerly housed Viki’s Montana Classics in early January.

Aces director Cathy Gaiser said the program was able to work out a rental agreement with the building’s owner, Peter Hoveland.

Aces has a lease-to-purchase option for the building after two years of paying rent, she said.

The building puts Aces closer to the other building it uses for middle school students: the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre building on Grand Drive.

The new Aces Building, as it will be known, is on the corner of Grand Drive and Commerce Street, almost directly across from Bigfork Elementary.

“We were looking for a place to get the kids outside,” Gaiser said. The new building will enable them to do just that.

A lot going on

There’s a lot going on at the after-school program, which runs from 3:15 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

°The program recently received a Fit Kit Club grant that allows the children to use snowshoes and sleds at the Bigfork High School track and Bigfork Elementary’s playground.

°Middle-schoolers are currently setting up “grow lights” at the Playhouse building that will enable them to grow starters for the Bigfork school garden.

°Twelve Bigfork High School students are mentoring 12 elementary school students with their science projects for this month’s Science Fair. “We’re helping students who weren’t able to be in the Science Project,” Gaiser said.

°The Windmill Foundation recently gave the program a grant that pays for the children of Bigfork teachers to use the program.

°Signe Ensign from the Persimmon Gallery in Bigfork volunteered to start an art program for the program.

°Verizon Wireless gave the program a $8,000 grant for a Legos project, which the students are now developing. The kids have been using Legos to build replicas of Bigfork’s buildings, Gaiser said.

“People have come out of the woodwork (to help),” Gaiser said. “It’s been amazing.”

Aces will host an open house at their new building later this month.