KIDS FIND MAGIC IN LEARNING.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

Never mind that fourth-grader A.J. Porrazzo was looking a little pale Tuesday. It was only white face paint, and it helped complete her portrayal of Harry Potter's adversary, Draco Malfoy.

If you're lost by now, one might ask how you enjoyed your long stay on another planet. Potter, as any 9-year-old knows, is the wizardly hero in the stunningly successful book series of the same name, and Malfoy is his antagonist.

As for Porrazzo, she's one of the many kids in the Eugene-Springfield area who has found a happy convergence between the books she loves and the need to have something to do during the summer months.

Porrazzo is among the 200-plus kids who, on Friday, will finish nine weeks with the summer program of the Boys and Girls Club of Emerald Valley. The program means education and recreation for an ethnically diverse group of mostly low-income children, many of whom are adopted or live with foster families, club officials said.

The summer program isn't new, but adding Potter is. In light of the popularity of the two movies, program director Corey Briggs said, the club decided to base its education offerings on elements from author J.K. Rowling's books.

For Porrazzo, a 9-year-old at Eugene's Harris Elementary, that translated into seamless fun, with nary a hint that education was involved.

During the scavenger hunt, for example, Porrazzo - dressed in a snazzy blue cloak that Malfoy himself would certainly appreciate - walked a play field and read clues meant to guide her to certain items. Once she'd found the items, she wrote them down.

"Everything they're doing here, they're learning," education director Howard Kopp said. "You have them learning, and they don't know they're learning. That's the key."

Tuesday's event - "The Harry Potter Festival" - was Kopp's brainchild. He was able to sell the kids on nine weeks of Harry Potter-based reading, trivia and math skills, he said, on the promise that it would culminate with the festival.

"Typically, for low-income kids, reading and math skills fall off by 20 percent over the summer," said Kopp, who cut a striking figure in his black sorcerer's cap and cloak. "What you try to do with a program like this is maintain those skills over the summer."

And nothing hooks kids to education like Harry Potter. Kopp noted, for example, that the club's "Harry Potter" reading club met for no less than an hour daily during the summer program.

Porrazzo doesn't struggle to put her finger on the Potter appeal. Although the young wizard places fourth on her list of interests (behind pets, soccer and piano), she said she enjoys the Potter books "because of the exciting events and the dangerous stuff that happens."

It's also clear that, as Kopp said, Potter can cast a spell so strong that some kids in the program don't realize that education is the true magic being worked.

Zack Childers, a bespectacled 13-year-old at Kennedy Middle School, said that, thanks to the summer program and Harry Potter, he's learning the answers to all kinds of questions.

And does it feel like work?

"It feels like I'm having fun," Childers said, grinning broadly.

CAPTION(S):

E d u c a t i o n Lindsay Baker / The Register-Guard Chae Taylor, 9, gets her face painted by Mia Hintz, 11, at the "Harry Potter Festival" at the Westmoreland Community Center on Tuesday. The summer program of the Boys and Girls Club of Emerald Valley based its education offerings this year on elements from author J.K. Rowling's popular books. A.J. Porrazzo and Beverly Burgos, both 9, study a clue in a Harry Potter-themed scavenger hunt at Westmoreland on Tuesday afternoon.