RACINE, Wis. — A Racine after-school summer program is not only teaching kids several key lessons, but it is also getting them to explore the outdoors.

The Cops ‘N Kids Summer Garden Club is a free program that is helping students grow in different ways. The class consists of students between the ages of 5 and 12 years old and meets four times a week throughout the summer.

“We realized that city kids don’t know what gardens are,” said Cynthy McCrory, the leader of the Cops ‘N Kids Garden Club.

The garden club gives kids the chance to play in the dirt with a purpose and is teaching them things like responsibility, discipline, teamwork and nutrition.

“A lot of kids tell me they don’t like vegetables, maybe a carrot, but guess what? At the end of the class, they try it,” said McCrory.

To say McCrory has a passion for teaching is an understatement. She taught early childhood education for 40 years.

After retirement, she continued teaching with the nonprofit Cops ‘N Kids and has been running its garden club for 13 years.

“I taught all of my dolls to read because that was what you did back in the day when you didn’t have many friends to play with and I taught my sister to read at four. So, I knew that was what I was destined for,” explained McCrory. 

The garden club gives kids a chance to get outdoors, stay off their phones and use their imagination. Kimberly Prewitt also helps out with the garden club.

She said McCrory has even taught her a thing or two about gardening.

“Her passion for teaching like she said extends for over 40 plus years, as does mine, but she’s the expert at it. With gardening and all of that, she has taught me so much,” said Prewitt.

Only time will tell how much longer McCrory will help out with the program. Every time she wants to call it quits, she said it is the kids that keep her coming back.

“At the end of every summer I always say, ‘I’m not going to do that again because it is in the middle of the day.’ But this is why I do it because you get a group like this who really loves coming and that’s why you do it, when you hear the kids want to come to the garden and you see they get right to work,” said McCrory. 

McCrory has had several families who keep coming back to the program and is now teaching different generations within families.