Banana Fana is launching an outdoor summer camp for ages 6–12 to support families when public and private schools are closed. Your support funds scholarships, qualified staff, materials, and educational outings so kids can grow in leadership, confidence, and critical thinking in a trusted environment.

I’m Gloria Morales-Nova, Founder and Executive Director of Banana Fana Preschool in San Francisco (two open sites and one more in the making) For years, families have trusted us to care for their children with consistency, warmth, and high standards.

This summer, when school is closed, many working families face the same challenge: safe, reliable full-day care is hard to find and expensive, especially for school-age children. I have personally been impacted by rates not aligning with expectations. That’s why we’re launching a Banana Fana Outdoor Summer Camp for ages 6–12, designed as an extension of the trusted environment families already know.

This camp is more than supervision. It’s a structured, outdoor program built to help children thrive through:

• Leadership & confidence (taking responsibility, speaking up, trying new challenges)

• Problem-solving & critical thinking (hands-on games, strategy, projects, STEM-style challenges)

• Teamwork & communication (cooperative play, conflict resolution, group goals)

• Healthy outdoor movement and connection to our neighborhood parks along with community engagement.

As a committed community leader, I’m creating this program to make families’ lives easier this summer—particularly for our wonderful BFP staff—so parents can work with peace of mind and children can spend their summer in a safe, consistent, and joyful environment with qualified staff.

Where the money goes:

$16,500 Use Plan

• $7,000 Scholarships / reduced-rate spots for Mission families

• $7,000 Staffing/operating support (qualified teachers & safe supervision)

• $1,000 Events / educational experiences (field trip admissions, outings)

• $500 Program materials & outdoor supplies (STEM, sports, art, books, sun/hydration safety)

Public transit is free for our group, so funds go directly to program quality and access.

This is a direct community fundraiser to keep summer access affordable and programming high-quality for SF families.

Call to action

If you can give, thank you. If you can’t, sharing this page helps tremendously. We’ll post updates and a short end-of-summer recap showing how many scholarship weeks were provided and what the funds made possible.