Bigfork students will have the United Methodist Church to call their new after-school home starting on Sept. 17.

This year’s 21st Century Community Learning Center grant from the Montana Office of Public Instruction will fund a new after-school program for Bigfork and Swan River schools called ACES, Academics, Community, Education and Sports. The grant will also fund after-school programs in Kila, Deer Park and Marion.

Cathy Gaiser and the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre were awarded the the CLC grant through the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork. It amounts to about $200,000 a year for the next five years.

“CFBB was huge,” Gaiser said. “They opened the door for this grant, for us to do this after-school program.”

CFBB is the 501(c)(3) holding onto and administering the grant money until Gaiser and Brach Thompson of the children’s theatre can form a 501(c)(3) specifically for ACES. Gaiser said they needed the grant funding and a nonprofit to receive that funding before ACES could form a separate 501(c)(3).

President of CFBB Paul Mutascio said being a holding agency for the grant until a new nonprofit could be formed was something CFBB wanted to do as an organization because they saw a need for after-school care in the community.

“Our goal was, all along, to open that door knowing the full time that there were people in the community who could service that grant better than we could,” Mutascio said. “If you don’t create opportunity than nothing will come about.”

Bigfork’s LEAP after-school program closed in May after funding from a 21st Century CLC grant ran out.

Brach Thompson of the children’s theatre said he decided to become a partner on the grant because after LEAP closed he also felt it was necessary to continue providing after-school care in Bigfork. Thompson said he knew Gaiser was the right person to do it with because of her success with childcare and after-school programs in the past. Gaiser received the 21st Century CLC grant that started the LEAP program five years ago. She was LEAP’s program director for the first four years of the program.

“I told Cathy, ‘we’re doing this, even if we don’t get the grant, we’re doing this,’” Thompson said. “We’d been talking about how to get more kids to participate in more things.”

ACES will be a pairing of what’s expected from an after-school program, homework help and arts and sports activities, with a little bit extra, speech and drama, gymnastics, community involvement and programs offered by the BPCT.

“This will just allow more people to participate in my programs regardless of the money,” Thompson said. “Twenty-first century makes it so they can participate, part of the grant goes to cover those fees.”

The workshops, choir, jazz band and theatre productions Thompson provides every school-year through the playhouse can now be offered to students in the free and reduced school lunch program who go to the ACES after-school program.

Gaiser said over 50 percent of the students in Bigfork and Swan River schools qualify for the free and reduced school lunch program. Because of this, many of the students who would potentially attend ACES, will be attending for free.

As it stands right now, the approximately $200,000 spread between four programs will leave them about 30 percent short of what is needed for the year.

“Bigfork has always been very supportive of the program and we hope they continue,” Gaiser said.

In addition to donations made by community members, Gaiser and Thompson are planning on looking for more grant funding to keep the ACES afloat for the long term.

Gaiser said looking for additional funding is on the to do list for the board of the 501(c)(3) they will be forming. While plans for the nonprofit are in the works, the initial goal is to get the program up and running before forming a board and applying for 501(c)(3) status.

“The program seems more important than the paperwork at the moment,” Thompson said. “We want people to know there is going to be a program, there is going to be a place for those kids to go.”