LAGUNA -- The Tribal Youth Cultural Enrichment Program concluded the last day of its summer program Friday in Laguna Pueblo with a celebration of food and ice cream.

An after-school program may follow this fall/winter.

Picking up her items was Shantel Antonio, 9, who made a leather pouch, moccasins and beaded earrings and a bracelet.

"These are fun to make," Shantel said of the beaded items.

Also celebrating the program's conclusion was Edward Elwood, 12, who spent a week making a drum.

Edward said the best part of drum making was hollowing out the inside of a tree stump. "I got to use a chisel and hammer," he said. "[I] did it all the way around to get to the other side." It took him five hours to hollow out the drum, he said.

"Sewing was pretty cool," Edward said of another class in pouch making. "It took time sewing it together." He said he used a needle and sewed the pouch by hand.

Instructors were on hand for the celebration. Alex Romero taught moccasin and pouch making, which he learned by watching his dad when he was 14 years old.

Instructor Kathleen Dailey taught traditional sewing of monk's cloth and has made skirts and dresses with Laguna designs and traditional colors of red, black and green.

The instructors go through a drug screen, background check and fingerprinting, said program coordinator Victoria Richardson.

Three Laguna communities offered the program this year for 100 children, Richardson said. Last winter it was also part of an after-school program for three months, offering traditional classes in moccasins, pouch and drum making, as well as Keresan language classes, the language of the Laguna Pueblo.

"We are in our last year now," said Richardson. "And hopefully we will receive more funding."

The three-year U.S. Department of Justice grant of $300,000 expires this year. When the program first began, it averaged 200 youths. The majority of youths were nine to 16 years old.

"Some of these kids have been three-year participants," Richardson said. "They've just excelled in their arts and crafts. Once they finished learning how to make an item, they move on to another item," she said, adding that the youths get to keep their projects.

"This is a free program for the kids and only costs them time and attendance," She said. "All materials are provided."

By Ilene Haluska