While school districts throughout Butler County closed Thursday in anticipation of a severe weather event, many children still needed a place to go for the time they would normally have spent at school.

The Butler YMCA and its branch locations in the Karns City area and south Butler stayed open Thursday for childcare for school-aged children.

Dianne Oesterling, director of child care and youth services at the Butler YMCA, said the main campus in downtown Butler even has different plans to follow based on if Butler Area School District calls for a remote learning day or if it calls off school completely.

“If there is no remote learning, we provide activities for the school-aged kids when they are not in school,” Oesterling said. “Since it’s a snow day, they had kickball in the gym today, pizza for lunch, (and) we did some art activities.”

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