This week we celebrated Mallory's upcoming graduation from Old Dominion University! Her goal is to work in Therapeutic Recreation, like Tracy, and we wish her the best. She's been a lot of help to us over the semester as she spent many hours with us getting hands-on experience working with adults, which she hopes to do in her future. Check out our celebration for her in the Thursday part of the post. The rest of the week was a lot of fun, too. We had good times with the master gardeners, our friends at Grove Christian Outreach Center, the awesome staff at Pet Supplies Plus, and Christina at The Art Museums of CW! Check it all out right here...
Tuesday, April 23
When we arrived at Freedom Park to work with the master gardeners today, we were greeted by a new gate at the Williamsburg Botanical Garden. This beautiful new gate was installed on April 13th as a gift from Metal Masters Welding and Fabrication right here in Williamsburg. It's just gorgeous!
Once inside the garden we checked on the potatoes, onions, and garlic, all of which are growing nicely, and planted more spinach because what we planted last time had not sprouted yet. Our Herb of the Day was parsley, and Emma and Kate helped Barb plant flat-leaf Italian and curly "regular" parsley in the herb bed.
MGs Carolyn, Joanne, Angie, and Barb gave us instructions so we could start an experiment! We "planted" sunflower seeds inside cottonballs that were soaked with water. We then placed them in a plastic bag, where we predict they will germinate. Our homework is to observe them until we return to the garden with the MGs on May 14. Angie even made cute little journal booklets for us to log our observations in, with covers made from seed packets! We will keep a close watch on our experiment, and hopefully we'll be able to transplant all the sunflowers that germinate in a few weeks! Our sweet Krafty Karen is spending time with her mom in Charlottesville following her mom's recent hip surgery. Her mom is 94 and was able to come home this week! We miss you, Karen, and hope to see you soon. We've got your mom in our thoughts! 💚
Beka showed off the beautiful bouquet of irises from Barb's yard, and there was the first peony of the season from her yard in there, too! Barb said the only reason we got the first peony blossom was because her bush had a lot of buds on it! Thank you, Barb, for the colorful arrangement that will add a lovely touch to our room. And thanks to you, and Carolyn, Joanne, and Angie, too, for a wonderful visit at the garden today. We were surprised by the cotton ball seed experiment, but we look forward to seeing how it turns out!
This is a photo of the space the MGs will fill with many varieties of plants for their annual sale on May 11. You'll want to come if for no other reason than to see the new gate! There will be a few plants out for sale starting this weekend, for their "Honor Box" sale, but much more to come in May. Check out the details for their sale, and a couple of other local sales, below this picture.
May 4 at the JCC Rec Center on Longhill Rd - The Colonial Triangle Unit of Virginia from The Herb Society of America will have a sale from 9:30-3:00, or until sold out.
Also on May 4, at the Williamsburg Community Center on N. Boundary St., the John Clayton Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society will have a native plant sale from 9:30-2:00.
May 11, our very own James City County Master Gardeners will host their annual plant sale at the garden in Freedom Park from 9:00-12:00. It's only for 3 hours because they always sell out!
Here's Carolyn's lovely journal page that details our wonderful visit with the MGs today. Thank you, Carolyn. Great job, as usual!
From the garden, we made our way to Jamestown Beach Event Park where we celebrated National Picnic Day. It was a perfect day to eat outside with friends! We also explored and found spots for photo ops, as well as a blue heron fishing for lunch! We saw it get a small fish, but the camera missed it. Oh, snap!
We also got a nice walk out to the picnic area, beach area, and back to the vans. It's important for us to get our steps!
Back at AFCC we ended the day with a few minutes of Choice Time during which we got this fun photo of four friends who were ALL sporting new eyewear today! Beka had new reading glasses, and Sam, Liz, and Devin had new all-the-time glasses. Aren't they sharp?!
Wednesday, April 24
We began today with a lesson on Earth Day, which was Monday. After a couple of great videos on how long trash lasts, and small ways we can help our planet, we had an Earth Day scavenger hunt. This was the kind of scavenger hunt where we read interesting information and learn cool facts!
Liz, Emma, and Kevin learned that the first Earth Day was in 1970, and that Senator Nelson from Wisconsin was responsible for getting it off the ground.
Annmarie, Mallory, and Laura learned that more than half of the world's plants and animals live in rainforests!
Patrick and Erik were reading about wind turbines, and learning that they can generate electricity!
Carol checked in on Bryan and Devin who told her that they learned that the average American uses about 50 gallons of water a day!
After our Earth Day scavenger hunt we went to Grove Christian Outreach Center. On a typical fourth Wednesday of the month, you'd find us there, volunteering our time to help with food distribution. But since this week is Volunteer Appreciation Week, we were recognized for our volunteer work, and invited to visit their Open House! We really enjoyed socializing with other visitors and volunteers, and the refreshments were great, too!
One familiar face we saw was our friend Ursula, who works with us when we volunteer. Ally is in the backgrond giving Alexis a hug.
This is Sheree, who helps us with food distribution work sometimes. Today she was showing Pat and Beka the children's clothes closet, which she helps to keep organized.
Abraham and Laura got a tour of the "mini food mart" with Ally and volunteer, Karen.
In the large room where we usually work, there were representatives from many community agencies on hand to explain their services to today's visitors. Kevin was thrilled to find Rachel, our friend from Parks & Rec, at one of the tables. He asked if he could sit with her while he enjoyed refreshments, and she said it made her day! 💙
Abraham showed off one of Parks & Rec's Destination Recreation catalogs, and later he was thumbing through it and found information about our day program! He was so excited to find the words "The Arc of Greater Williamsburg" and said that's what is on our shirts! 👏👏
This is a pretty landscaped area outside of GCOC. It says "Love Thy Neighbor" on one of the panels. GCOC is very good at loving their neighbors in the Grove Community, and we are honored to help in our small way. Thanks, GCOC, for welcoming us today, and letting us know you appreciate what we do to support your incredible and worthwhile programs. We love being partners with you!
Back at the center, we reviewed our Earth Day scavenger hunt answers and ate lunch. After listening to a couple of chapters in Lone Wolf, it was time to welcome our friends Joel, Peggy, Tom, and Ursula. They are the main volunteers we work with at GCOC. We set up a date a while back for them to visit our center to learn more about us, and didn't know at the time it would be the same day that we would visit GCOC for Volunteer Appreciation Day! Oh well, we really like them, so the more time we can spend with them, the better! We had prepared dessert to share with them. It was a wonderful ending to a very good day!
Earlier in the day, Lexi and Liz had made peanut butter blossom cookies. Carol had made lemon-blue berry cheesecake bars at home last night, and Lisa contributed a pineapple-cherry crisp. We wanted to have a dessert bar for our visitors.
Our guests were very attentive as we shared with them the ways we spend our time. Here, Alexis, Kevin, Devin, and Liz were explaining how we choose many of our activities based on info from the National Day Calendar!
We were especially proud to tell our friends about our jobs at Pet Supplies Plus and Eaton! They were impressed with how busy we are with a variety of activities. Lisa, Carol, and Nan were very proud of how we took responsibility for speaking up about our program!
We were also proud when Ursula and Peggy asked for our recipes! We hope they, and Joel and Tom, will visit again...we suggested they come for lunch next time! 😉
Thursday, April 25
We were excited today to celebrate Intern Mallory's graduation from college! Everyone got busy after the dance warm up helping us prepare for lunch. Today's menu was nacho casserole, rice, and refried beans.
Lexi and Drew opened and drained canned corn.
Erik and Liz carefully cut the onion and garlic we got from the garden on Tuesday into small pieces so we could brown it with the meat! It smelled so delicious!
Patrick was ready for the onion and garlic to be added to the ground beef he was browning!
This crew of Kevin, Bryan, Devin, Kate, Beka, and Laura made sure that Mallory's "Guest of Honor" table, and the closet doors behind it, were nicely decorated.
They're hard to see, but Annmarie, Xavier, and Emma made napkin rings with colorful graduation caps on them. 🎓🎓🎓
Mallory filled in for Michelle and Tessa who were absent this week. The girls were excited to have her on their team!
We were all thrilled for Erik today when he sank TWO bags in a row into the hole!
Devin added a few points for the boys' team, too!
These handsome guys pulled off the victory today, 15-9! Congrats to the boys' team!
Just before lunch, we looked back into our blog archives for "Memories with Mallory." We've had some fun times with her over the past few months!
Tracy joined us for Mallory's graduation luncheon! Thanks again for sharing Mallory with us, Tracy. We've enjoyed getting to know her!
Many thanks to our families for your generous donations toward Mallory's gift of a "down payment" on her accreditation exam fees. She was extremely touched by our kindness!
We wish you all the best as you continue your journey in therapeutic recreation, Mallory! You have a big heart for us and others like us. 💗
We ended our Thursday with yoga, because we will be out and about tomorrow! It's always a great opportunity to relax and stretch, and that's something our guys really appreciate!
Instead of winding down on a Friday, we were busy and on the go! The first thing we did was check on the sunflower seed experiments we started with the master gardeners on Tuesday. We needed to see if the seeds had sprouted, and most of them have! We recorded our observations in the little journal booklets MG Angie made for us, and we are looking forward to seeing how much more they will change by the time we check again on Tuesday!
Next, we sent a crew to work at Pet Supplies Plus where a big delivery had come in yesterday. Our guys sorted products and stocked the shelves correctly and efficiently, as usual. They met geckos today, too!
Our other crew stayed at the center where we sorted Eaton parts and worked on thank you cards for our recent visitors. They gave us a donation that we can use for a fun adventure!
After a quick lunch, we made our way to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg where we celebrated Arbor Day with Christina and Jan (who we don't get to see too often). We found many objects that depicted trees and discussed the artists' varying ways of using trees in their work. Our project today consisted of creating pictures that featured trees, by rolling dice and drawing certain elements based on the number rolled. We always enjoy seeing what we end up with when we start with a "blank" page, and do something creative with Christina! Thanks, Christina and Jan, for teaching us interesting things today and for helping us celebrate Arbor Day by appreciating trees in art!
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Our drawings are hard to see in the photograph, but they were awesome, because we are very good "Arc-tists" with great teachers in Christina and Jan!
That's a wrap on this week. May arrives next week! Here's what we have planned to welcome the new month:
Tuesday: We are going to see our friends at The Mariners' Museum today for a lesson on how plants, animals, and other items were moved between the Old World (Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa) and the New World (the Americas). Wisteria guarantees laughter, head shakes, and maybe a few "ewwws," too! Sounds exciting! If the weather permits, we will visit Deer Park in Newport News for a second time, and have lunch and take a walk to look for azaleas and dogwood trees in bloom. Please wear Arc shirts and bring a bagged lunch.
Wednesday: It's May Day so we will update our calendar and room decorations this morning. We're welcoming visitors for lunch - Arc Board Member Diane Schwarz and her friend Sallie McLain from the Virginia Down Syndrome Association, so we will be cooking this morning as well. After lunch we'll make birthday cards for a special celebration coming up tomorrow... Quinoa/spinach/tomato/chicken salad for lunch.
Thursday: We are lucky ducks, to say the least, with so many friends who love to spend time with us, and who treat us to wonderful things. Today, we are having an early Cinco de Mayo / Teri's Birthday Celebration, which is a tradition with our friend (and Sam's mom), Coach Teri! From the first year of the AoA, we have enjoyed this celebration with Teri, who is graciously providing lunch from Moe's (taco bar). We are excited to continue this tradition, and introduce our new AoA members to it! Thank you, Coach Teri. We will make this a birthday to remember for you! 🌮🥳🌮🥳🌮🥳
Friday: We will go to Eaton for a work day, so please wear Eaton shirts. Depending on the weather, we'll either take a walk at the park or return to AFCC for yoga with Jaime. Bring a bagged lunch today!
Please keep these upcoming Arc of Greater Williamsburg FUNdraising opportunities in mind as you make plans for the spring and summer months! We would love a few AoA volunteers to spend a couple of hours either Saturday or Sunday at the Pickleball Challenge. Please reach out to Lisa or Carol if you have any questions! You can get more info about all these events here!
This is a fun event to spend time visiting! Our very own Coach Teri is putting together the silent auction items, so you won't want to miss that!
The 9th Annual Women of the Moose golf tournament is particularly near and dear to the hearts of us at the Arc of Abilities. Moose Patti is a beloved friend, and she works her behind off to make sure this is a successful event each year! We will need AoA members to volunteer the morning of August 3, so mark your calendars and let us know if you can help. Also, it's never too early to sign up to play...or sponsor a hole (Bronze level)! Thank you well in advance, even though it will be here before we know it!
MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE!
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
