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Cyber Student Cafe at Eurena Park in Weatherly

Faith Church Network hosts the outreach program to help students learning virtually and working parents.

WEATHERLY, Pa. — Inside a building at Eurena Park in Weatherly, students were hard at work on Wednesday learning math, science, and social studies online.

"We just sit here and do our school work. Our teachers give us breaks so we just sit around or sometimes we get up and play," said sixth grader Kaiden Wesner.

Weatherly Area School District is all virtual for the first month of school.  

Many parents voiced concerns about how they were going to balance childcare and making it to work.

That's when Faith Church Network came up with the idea of this program.  It's being called Cyber Student Cafe.

"We have three campuses. We have Hazleton campus, Drums campus, and Weatherly campus. They got together and it's for working parents that need a place for their kids to be while they are supposed to be in school," said Katrina Dotzel, Cyber Student Cafe director.

Cyber Student Cafe is available for any school district K through 12.

Students are socially distanced and must bring their own materials like computers, iPads, headphones, chargers, login information, and school contact info.

Weatherly Area School District is providing lunch for students.

"We are not teaching, them we are just watching them. It's an outreach from our church," said Dotzel.

"There are so many parents out there, myself included, it's just like, 'What to do you do?' We are supposed to go back and all of a sudden it's like ta-da, we are not. It's a safe place for the kids to get work done," said Lori Gerhard, Cyber Student Cafe director.

It cost $20 a day or $90 a week to send your child to the cafe. It can hold up to 25 students per day.

If you'd like to sign your child up, Faith Church Network has information on schedule on its website.

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