Blueprint4 Enters Year NINE Serving the St. Louis Community Full STEAM Ahead for Summer Camp Planning

ST. LOUIS (February 22, 2023) – For St. Louis area parents and caregivers, thoughtful planning for summertime activities has never been easier for their child - thanks to the free resource Blueprint4. Entering its ninth year, the camp search process has been dramatically streamlined with this resource. The recently updated and user-friendly website houses the most comprehensive database of summer programming throughout the St. Louis metro area, creating filters to identify the perfect activities best suited for the family.

Last year, Blueprint4 listed just over 9,500 summer camp opportunities on the platform, a number that continues to grow each year and no other local platform has come close to this comprehensive database. In the first six months of 2022, there were over 70,000 unique searches on the site proving how useful this tool has been for parents to plan an enriching, fun-filled summer.

“What we designed several years ago has exceeded our expectations in terms of usage and support, and we’re continuing to grow the platform to be the No. 1 summer planning resource for families of all incomes, races, locations and interests,” said Maxine Clark, CEO of the Clark-Fox Family Foundation, who created Blueprint4 with the goal to eliminate the stress and frustration families, especially in under-resourced areas, feel when they try to piece together summer plans for their kids. “Every single child and family should have access to high quality camps that enrich their lives,” Clark said.

Research from Johns Hopkins University shows that summer learning loss during elementary school accounts for approximately two thirds of the achievement gap in reading by ninth grade. Blueprint4 helps to tackle this issue head on in the St. Louis community by providing low-income families free, easy-to-access information to a wide catalogue of educational summer camps. Using the search tool, visitors can quickly find the programs and resources that best fit the needs of their family and each individual child. Activities can be searched based on any number of preferences such as age, gender, interests, cost and zip code as well as special considerations such as sessions for special needs or gifted students, those offering before and after care, or opportunities for scholarships. But the tool is much more than a free database for summer camps. With help from generous local donors, Blueprint4 also provides children in underserved communities the opportunities to attend summer camps via scholarships. Over $500,000 has been awarded in scholarships since 2015. This year, Blueprint4 will continue to focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) related summer camps and plans to award $150,000 in scholarships, a continued year-over-year increase.

Blueprint4 also brings awareness to the abundance of local summer programming offline as well. This year, Blueprint4 is co-hosting the North Country Camp Fair in partnership with the Ferguson-Florissant School District on March 11th at McCluer South Berkley, March 18th with St Louis City Camp providers at Forest Park Forever, and April 15th at the Legacy Center in Normandy. All fairs are free, informational events that will showcase camps for all ages and interests related to sports, music, drama, STEAM and more, and are open to everyone.

St. Louis summer programs interested in getting involved can easily submit their camps via email to Zasmine Johnson via email @zasmine@clark-fox.com.

About Blueprint4

The Blueprint4 platform allows families to access a comprehensive database of learning experiences from pre-school to college prep in a centralized location. Originally launched in 2015 to post only information about summer programming, Blueprint4 now offers year-round out-of-school time programming for summer camp, after school, and summer college prep learning opportunities.

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