At a time when kids find it more appealing to play video games or watch TV than go outside and play, about two dozen youngsters in Kaisertown are bucking that trend.
And their numbers are only expected to grow.
From 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays – July 18 to Aug. 22 – kids and volunteers meet at Houghton Park and play games, including kickball, dodgeball and duck-duck-goose. Most participants are between ages 6 and 12, but some of the parents and volunteers are not fans on the sidelines.
That way, they get to teach the kids the rules of the games.
This week, a game of clothespin tag was followed by volleyball and kickball. As might be expected, minor arguments over the score broke out. The younger kids opted for less intense games, including Simon Says.
“We try to do quick and easy team sports,” said Tom Olejniczak, a legislative aide with Common Council President Richard Fontana, who is a Wednesday regular.
Olejniczak, who grew up in Kaisertown, said some of the kids didn’t even know the rules of dodgeball when they started.
“Years and years ago, you couldn’t pull kids out of the park,” he said. “That face-to-face interaction is slowly ebbing away.”
But now, the kids are getting to the point where they’re becoming friends with one another and are setting up games on their own, which is what the sports club aims to initiate.
And in a neighborhood with many moderate- and low-income families, the Wednesday night club is a way for kids to have fun without their parents having to absorb the cost of participating in youth sports or Little League. Some residents have even donated old sports equipment for the club to use.
“It really is bolstering that sense of community that we were going for,” Olejniczak said.
Jim Pacer, a member of the Kaisertown Coalition Committee for Sports, who helped organize the sports club, said he is hoping to carry the program into the winter at the Machnica Community Center on Clinton Street. Pacer added that the sports club helps boost the kids’ self-esteem and lessens their chances of getting into trouble with drugs – a problem in the neighborhood.
But it’s not drugs that has Cheryl Pratt concerned.
“I loathe the PlayStation,” said Pratt, of Buffalo, adding that her son played it before coming to the sports club for the first time Wednesday night.
“It [the club] gives kids the chance to interact with each other and make new friends,” she said.
Her son, Preston, 11, said he really enjoys games like volleyball and clothespin tag.
Will he be back next week?
“Yeah,” he said with a smile and a laugh.
The sports club isn’t anything new for Marianna Sanchez, entering sixth grade at Frederick Law Olmsted School, who has been on hand for the activities every Wednesday.
While Pacer and company are club organizers, Marianna is the director of marketing. She made signs for the club and put them up around the neighborhood. She also told many of her friends about the new Wednesday night activity.
“I thought it sounded fun because I’d usually be stuck at home,” said Marianna, 11.

email: jharris@buffnews.com