Don’t let summer
be a bummer

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

As the end of the school year approaches, the need to find fun summer activities to keep the kids occupied grows more immediate.
Enter 5 Weeks of Family Fun, a lineup of discounted cultural and recreational events taking place through June 17. The program is sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, which operates in part with a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
"We wanted a way to get families involved in cultural organizations," said Becky Lang Staffieri, marketing and sales manager for the alliance. "There’s a study out there that if children participate in the arts when they’re young, they’re more likely to participate when they’re older. We wanted to feed into that."
Programming includes half-price tickets to 36 places in Philadelphia and surrounding counties, from the Adventure Aquarium in Camden to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Center City. No fewer than five events take place each day of the program.
Some institutions are providing tickets each day, while others are offering only limited passes in conjunction with special programming. More than 2,000 tickets have already been sold, Lang Staffieri said.
"We really tried to get a variety of events, different things that are out in the community," she added. "This is something that we really wanted to do to give a good example of who makes up our membership."
The half-price offerings mean cost savings of as much as $10 at some locations. For example, aquarium tickets plummet from $14.95 to $17.95 to between $7.47 and $8.98. Families can take the popular Secrets of the Schuylkill River cruise for between $7 and $10 instead of the usual $14 to $20.
And there’s something for every age group. Even mothers of babies and toddlers can join in the fun by attending outdoor exercise classes at parks throughout the area. Grade school-age children can have a ball bowling at Lucky Strikes in Center City or exploring the Battleship New Jersey in Camden. Older children and teenagers can delight in the fright of the historic Eastern State Penitentiary in the city’s Fairmount section, or rock out to hip-hop dance performances and plays.
Other organizations participating in 5 Weeks of Family Fun include the Independence Seaport Museum, the Society Hill Dance Academy, the Wilma and Adrienne theaters and the Franklin Institute.
Lang Staffieri stresses that 5 Weeks of Family Fun is geared more toward residents than tourists.
"It’s definitely something we wanted to do to engage families around here," she said. "There are less school groups going right now, so it helps the organizations because they may have a little more inventory. It exposes them, so it’s good."
Patrons can only purchase tickets online at PhillyFunGuide.com, through which the cultural alliance also offers Weekly Funsavers, half-price tickets for more than a dozen events and institutions in the Delaware Valley. Patrons can place their orders and then pick up tickets at the box office at each location.
Visitors to the site also can register to win a trip to Florida. For more information on 5 Weeks of Family Fun, visit the Web site at www.phillyfunguide.com
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com