Every summer they spring up all across the country in rural communities, suburbs, and in the inner cities. They take many different forms and influence people for generations to come. In an average year, they affect 38,000,000 American children. We are talking about that unique entity, the Vacation Bible School.

Vacation Bible School, according to Willie R. Beaty, was the idea of Mrs. Waler Aylett Hawes, a doctor's wife, whose goal was to get children off the streets of New York. In 1898 and 1899 Mrs. Hawes rented a beer hall in New York's East Side to conduct her Everyday Bible School. In 1900 Mrs. Hawes' pastor, Howard Lee Jones, insisted that the Bible school move to the church building, Epiphany Baptist Church. After two weeks it became clear that children from the East Side would not attend at the church, so Mrs. Hawes moved the school