Member Esmeralda Bernal was photographed and quoted in Wednesday, July 4, 2001 Burbank Leader. The following is the article in its entirety.

Summer Fun Thoughts For Tots
Burbank offers free arts and crafts activities for toddlers at local parks
By Karen S. Kim, Photo by Scott Roby

A cardboard box, five marbles, a sheet of paper and a drop of paint. Those were all the supplies needed Tuesday morning when a group of toddlers got together at Robert E. Lundigan Park for some arts and crafts.

The children shook and rattled the paint-covered marbles inside the paper-lined cardboard box with gusto, opened the box and pulled out the paper to reveal abstract paintings of crazy, zig-zagging lines.

"They really get into it. They start sticking their little fingers inside, and we have to tell them, 'No, no, just wiggle the boxes back and forth'" - Esmeralda Bernal, Recreation Leader for the park

Marble painting is just one of the activities that the tots, 2 to 6, are encouraged to take part in this summer at Burbank's parks.

Each week until August 17th, Burbank's Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department is hosting Tots at the Park. Free arts and crafts activities will be offered at Joaquin Miller School Park on Mondays, Robert E. Lundigan Park on Tuesday, William McKinley School on Wednesdays and Pacific Park on Thursdays, all at 10:30am.

"It gives them something else to do in the summer. It's a chance for parents to maybe meet with other parents and to give their kids new experiences as they meet other kids." - Carol Stiver Mercado, Coordinating the Summer Parks Program

Future activities include making candy necklaces, sponge painting, string painting and finger painting.