We Remain Optimistic!

By now you know that our Arc of Abilities Day Support Program made it into the finals for the Impact 100 grant, with a value of $50,000, and that we didn't win.  Carol and Lisa accompanied Pam and Drew's mom Donna to the "Big Give" event on Wednesday evening where Pam and Donna made a heartfelt and concise presentation on behalf of our program. 

You would have been so proud of how beautifully they represented The Arc!  

But alas, it wasn't meant to be.  We are not discouraged, for we know it was a well-deserved honor to be one of the five finalists.  We are a "small" program compared to the other finalists, but we are "growing" in so many ways.  Our time will come!  We congratulate this year's winners, Transitions Family Violence Services and Literacy for Life, both worthy organizations doing a lot of good in our local communities.  

Meanwhile, the week with our gang was fabulous!  Tuesday is generally our travel day, and our plans currently are to go bowling every other week and find other adventures in between. We weren't sure what Irma's impact on our Tuesday weather would be, so we didn't schedule a day long outing.  Instead, we started the day with our dance warm up and then got down to "celebrating" Ants on a Log Day!  This day is actually dedicated to bringing awareness to healthy snacks.  Everyone got in on the preparations by cutting celery, spreading it with peanut butter, and topping with raisins.  Much to our surprise, almost everyone ate them, too!

It was a mild morning, but we were still concerned it might rain later in the day, so after enjoying ants on a log, we loaded the vans and headed to Quarterpath Park, which is just up Rt. 60 on the way to Colonial Williamsburg.  We parked and hopped out for a nice morning walk down to see the horses where Page, Lafayette, and York Streets converge...known by some as Confusion Corner.

At first, the horses were way across the field, and we thought they may be eating.  We remained patient, and finally three horses took off running along the tree line.

We spotted what looked like some hay set up way over there and the horses were really into it.  They never came close to the fence.  So, with our objective of "seeing" them met, we headed back to our parked vans.  We'll have to take this walk again and maybe the horses will be a little closer.

Back at the center, we had lunch and then worked on The Arc's October mailing.  Make sure you check the calendar/sign up sheet and return it before the deadline.  As usual, lots of fun events are planned for October!

Earlier in the day we had worked on a favorite activity, making words out of a set of letters.  When we were done, Chris organized the letter cards and filed them alphabetically.  Thanks, Chris!

On Wednesday we enjoyed a day with a new visitor.  One of Lisa's former teaching friends, Missy, spent most of the day with us and she dived right in to help with all of our activities.

It was Peanut Day and after learning about how and where they grow, we worked on a craft project that involved gluing peanuts on a piece of paper in the shape of a letter, and then painting the peanuts with fall colors.  We were spelling out the words WELCOME FALL to use for decorating our room for the changing season.  Here, Missy helps Devin with his part of the project.

Look at how everyone is concentrating on the painting.  We were trying to "dot" the peanuts with color, using cotton swabs, instead of trying to cover the entire peanut with color.

We thought they looked pretty good.

Later you'll see how they look on our wall, with the apple decorations we made on Friday!

Also on Wednesday, Missy joined Kacie and Alexis to prepare our PB&J lunch!  We just love showing off our skills!

Later, she challenged Patrick and Kate to a Foosball game...they were no match for her, but both emerged from the game with big smiles!  Thanks for hanging out with us, Missy, and we hope you come again soon!

Tai Chi earlier in the morning on Wednesday focused on stretching and extending our arms.

It feels so good to stretch.

On Thursday we decided to see what boiled peanuts tasted like.  When reading about peanuts and watching a couple of video clips on Wednesday, we came across a few references to this southern "delight."  No one in the program had ever tried boiled peanuts.  (We had tried raw and dry roasted ones on Wednesday.)  So, we had Patrick and Sam wash the peanuts.

It's kind of a big deal when certain of our friends get their hands in "messy" stuff, so we were very excited that Patrick rinsed the peanuts so well!

Next, we got Chris to put them into boiling water that we had salted.  Heavily. 😛 Then we began working on a study of the state of Virginia, played in the gym, prepared meatball subs for lunch, and left those peanuts to boil for almost 4 hours...hoping some of that salt would seep through the shells!

Our meatball subs (in honor of Hoagie Day) were a big hit, as usual!

When the peanuts were boiled, they looked the same, but the shells were softer and much easier to crack open.  A few of our friends tasted them, and agreed they tasted pretty good...and they were just salty enough!  But overall, we decided we prefer the dry roasted version.

Since not everyone was game enough to eat the boiled peanuts, we sent some home with a few of the associates.  Maybe some of our lucky readers got to try them!

On Friday morning we were dancing along to everyone's special requests when Mr. Stutt came on the loud speaker and said we were about to have a lock down practice.  This was a first for Laura and Xavier, but they had some excellent role models!  We made our way to the locker room where we sat patiently and silently for several minutes, thankful it was only a practice.

Did Sam know we would be having the practice today?  His outfit and water bottle matched the locker room very nicely.  Dress for success, we always say!

It was a pleasant surprise to receive some Eaton work this week.  Bo worked on applying gaskets.  He is meticulous and very good at this task.

Xavier was on packaging detail.

This team had a lot of sorting to do!

It's always nice to have a few minutes in the gym.  We appreciate the PE teacher at JRES, Coach Devin, for sharing his space and his equipment with us!

Here, Kate fires off a shot that went in the basket.  In the background, Chris is helping Drew work on throwing the ball higher, so he gets behind him and helps Drew extend his arms.  😉

Patrick and Josie aim for the basket while Sam takes aim at a wall!

During Choice Time we found a portable basketball stand and set it up in the room.  Drew and Patrick enjoyed a game of one on one.

Friday was the day we planned to finish our first decorations for Fall, so we put our peanut letters on the wall and added some coffee filter inspired apples.  In this picture, Kevin is being encouraged by Carol to color the entire coffee filter with marker.  The next step would be to spray the coffee filter with water so the colors would run together in a colorful pattern.

Lisa was in charge of the spray bottle, and these guys seemed more interested in being sprayed themselves than finishing their works of art!

But we finally finished and added them to the wall with the peanut letters, and it turned out like this.  Fall officially begins next Friday, but we like to plan ahead!

Speaking of planning ahead, this is some of what we will be doing next week:

Tuesday:  Wear your Arc shirts and plan for pizza lunch!  It's a bowling day!  Weather permitting, we will take a walk, too. 

Wednesday:  It's Tai Chi Day!  Dress for stretching and moving.  We will also be using our Rotary Grant funded Learning Lab for the first time today, exploring our new laptops during small group time!  And, it's National Punch Day so we will repeat a favorite activity from last year, creating individual punch recipes from a variety of beverage choices.  Lunch on your own, with punch to drink!

Thursday:  Just a "regular" day shaping up, but we have been studying the great state of Virginia so we will mark Constitution Day (which was Sept. 17) by brushing up on that fabulous document and it's primary writer (and 4th president), Virginian James Madison.  We are also going to begin a series of lessons on responding to emergencies and will work with our friends on how to contact emergency services and in making sure they know important information (or where to readily find it) such as their addresses and phone numbers.  Lunch on your own.

Friday:  It's going to be a special time at the AoA as we celebrate Kacie's birthday!  Lunch will be provided and it's a mystery as of this writing, but we will let you know what it is in a few days. 😋 Here at the center we will bake Butterscotch Brownies, per Kacie's request, for dessert!  We will also learn about elephants...as we mark Elephant Appreciation Day with a few fun activities!

Coming soon...

This Wednesday evening, September 20th, at 6 p.m. we have been asked to join our friends at the Williamsburg Moose Lodge so they can present us with donations from recent fundraisers, including the 4th of July Picnic and the August Golf Tournament.  We would love for some of our friends who live in Williamsburg to join us in representing the AoA, so please let Lisa know if you can attend.  It will probably last about a half an hour.

The Women of the Moose (WOTM) have also asked us to pass along information about another golf tournament they are sponsoring that is coming up on October 7th.  It's the same day as the 5K, but if you're more inclined to golf, this tournament will be at Brickshire in New Kent County and it benefits the Day Support Program!! We will send an email with registration details or you can check with Lisa for more information.  The WOTM are committed to supporting our Arc of Abilities!

We didn't remind you last week, but it's not too late to register for The Arc's 8th Annual 5K to be held on October 7th at Williamsburg Landing.  You can sign up here!  We hope to see lots of you there...running is not required!  Come out and walk with us if that's more your speed!

As always, we thank you for your support of our program and wish you a very happy weekend!

Lisa, Carol, and Nan