The Funhouse offers several programs to serve the youth of Orcas Island. These include the Afterschool Program, the Mentor Program,  Teen Programs, Education Programs and the Funhouse Science Fair.

Afterschool Program

We provide a safe, educational, and fun place for children to hang out after school. Every day we have 25-75 children, first grade and up, at the Funhouse Commons taking part in structured play, creating art, exploring the science museum, playing music, and much more. We have seasonal clubs (Sewing, Pokémon, Knitting, Cleaning, etc.) and classes (Mad Scientists, Art with Lana, Yoga, Bike Repair, etc.) that our Funhouse kids can take part in. We also have a daily homework time from 4:30-5:00 PM where children can get help with their homework from staff, peers, and volunteers in a quiet and structured environment.

We welcome volunteers! Please contact Emilie at (360) 376-7177 or emilie@thefunhouse.org for more information.

The Mentor Program

Our Mentor Program is perhaps the most important thing we do. We have a model program in place, onethat provides our children and teens with traditional one-on-one mentor matches, and several types of project-based matches that link a caring adult with a small group of children. We match adults with children and teens, and teens with children. We even have a unique and innovative program that enhances the schools’ education programs: Mentored Online Learning. We know these programs are effective. We read it in the evaluations, we see it in the progress the children display, we see it in our school’s success as one of Washington’s “Outperforming School Districts.”

An incredible 10% of all the children on the island are involved in Funhouse Mentor Programs. Perhaps even more important, school counselors consider more than 80% of those children ‘at risk’ economically, emotionally, or both. During the course of a year our program may touch the lives of 100 or more children (almost 20% of the island’s children).

Contact Trillium at 376-7177 ext. 5 or trillium@thefunhouse.org to find out how you can become a mentor!

Education Programs

Our newest program category incorporates three key activities designed to help Orcas Children succeed beyond high school: Online Learning, SAT Test Preparation, and College Counseling.

We provide online classes for full high school credit to nearly 50 Orcas Public School students every school year. We also organized Orcas Island’s first-ever Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) Preparation Classes, which have served dozens of kids, along with our annual “Get Off The Rock” College Counseling Series for Orcas Island students and families.

These educational programs grew out of our Mentor Program, when we learned early on that kids taking Online Classes were greatly helped if matched with a community mentor who had expertise in the subject being studied. In fact, The Funhouse has been recognized as an innovative program by The Digital Learning Commons, which provides online programs to all Washington State schools.

Not only does our Online Learning program open up otherwise unavailable subjects (e.g., Japanese, German, Chinese, Greek & Roman Mythology, Screenwriting, Web Design, and more) for our students, it is also an invaluable tool for helping kids at risk of dropping out catch up and graduate.

Annual Funhouse Science Fair