This week was all about celebrating the 2nd anniversary of our Arc of Abilities! It hardly seems like it's already been two years since we began a three-day a week program with eleven associates. We have spent most of our time at the Abram Frink Community Center, in partnership (and a great partnership it is) with James City County Parks & Recreation. We spent the first summer at DJ Montague Elementary School, due to construction projects at James River Elementary, and we spent part of the first winter at the Rec Center on Longhill Road due to the pipes bursting at James River after a winter storm. Since those early days, we have grown to a four-day a week program currently with fifteen associates, and another potential member set to visit next month. We are busy with day trips, vocational work, life skills practice, continuing education, recreation, socialization, and more! It's all good and it's all fun! Here's a glimpse at our Anniversary Week:
The weather was forecast to be iffy so we didn't plan an outing for Tuesday. We stayed at the center and performed volunteer work. First up, Alexis, Chloe, Kevin, Cameron, and Meemaw worked on the Arc's April mailing.
Make sure you check the contents of the mailing. If you wish to participate in Arc events (other than AoA), you have to sign up by March 23rd! Coming up soon is the annual trip to Busch Gardens...lots of fun!
In the large room, Kate, Kacie, Sam, Patrick, and Nan worked to prepare books from the JRES library that were going to be discarded and given to classrooms. They had to remove barcode stickers and stamp "discard" on the inside of each book.
Xavier, Drew, Devin, and Laura worked on sorting and classifying skills using colored beads. This also helps with their fine motor skills so they can handle certain Eaton tasks more easily.
Chris was in charge of putting up St. Patrick's Day decorations in the lunch room!
Later on Tuesday, we learned about "texture" and then applied it as we went around the room coloring large shamrocks. Different backgrounds would give us different textural designs on our pictures. Here, Alexis used the door of the storage cabinet to create a striped look.
Devin helped hold Drew's paper in place as Drew colored against the cinder block on the wall. That made a bumpy textural look.
These made a nice decoration on the bathroom door!
Kenny Driscoll, the fire marshal from James City County, visited us on Wednesday to discuss the important topic of fire safety. Many of our associates spend time alone at home, and a few of them also cook. While they were familiar with much of the information Kenny shared, they had misconceptions about some things, so it was good to go over it again.
Kenny told us that smoke alarms should be tested monthly and the batteries changed twice a year. He recommended changing the batteries each time we adjust our clocks in spring and fall.
He also brought a pot that, much to our delight, had a "fake" fire inside. But, in seriousness, he said if a pot or pan catches fire, it's a good idea to put a lid on it. He suggested when cooking (with grease) that we keep the lid nearby. This was good information for our friends to pass along to their families, as we don't think any of them cook with grease!
We don't generally take shots of our guys from the back, but in this one, we're showing Kevin's shirt representing the firefighters of Broward County! (That's in Florida, right?!) Yay, Kevin! We love your spirit!
We also welcomed Jeff from the Williamsburg Rotary Clubs on Wednesday. He came to volunteer in the computer lab. Devin worked with him on sorting, counting, and classifying objects. Once Jeff gave Devin a couple of tips, he was in business!
Jeff also worked with Sam on a program about patterning. But first, Sam explained to Jeff how he enjoys video gaming at home!
This clip came up from the movie "La La Land" while we were dancing before lunch...
Kate and Sam did a very good job recreating it!
Isn't this a nice shot of Xavier and Chloe working side by side on different activities during Choice Time?
Yoga with Patti was fun today! She always asks us what we would like to try the following week. Last week we suggested a St. Patrick's Day pose....what?! Patti delivered! Here, she drew what she dubbed the "Leprechaun Pose" and then...
Sam and Kacie pulled it off! This was a hard one! The rest of us thoroughly enjoyed the story of a leprechaun finding a pot of gold that Patti told us during the session. Throughout the story, she incorporated gentle stretches and some of the other poses we have worked on.
At the end of the story, and after we had wrapped up our session in the very calm and comforting "shavasana" position (where we lie quietly for a couple of minutes taking quiet breaths), we discovered that a leprechaun had left us some treats! Thanks for a fun and creative session, Patti!
We always seem to have something to celebrate, but this week was extra special, especially on Thursday. Our Arc of Abilities is 2 years old! There are so many pictures...and we're ok with that! We found out this week that when we take "walks down memory lane," and look at older blog posts, our friends enjoy all of the photos very much! We hope you do, too!
Here, the gang posed in chronological order from when they joined us. The first nine, from Patrick to Bo, were in the "charter" group that began in March, 2016. Since then, we had a few who were with us and then moved on, but the others, from Chloe to Cameron, joined and are with us now, making our current total 15.
Heike surprised us with some homemade cinnamon/raisin/chocolate chip muffins on our anniversary! Thank you, sweet Heike! We love you!
Earlier in the morning (before the celebrating began), Liz, Alexis, and Bo shelved books in the library. This is a good challenge for them. They have to alphabetize to the 3rd letter!
We danced a lot on Thursday and some of us also took a walk around campus after lunch, because it was a party day and there were treats to be enjoyed. We had looked forward to making Rainbow Cupcakes and Blarney Stone Cookies (we were also celebrating St. Patrick's Day) all week, so even though Heike treated us with muffins, we proceeded to make our cupcakes. Bo, Alexis, Sam, and Chris were part of Team Cupcake and here they figure out what needed to be done to get started.
Cupcake batter had to be made and then colored. We were going for yellow, red, blue, purple, and green.
We had prepared Blarney Stone Cookie dough the day before, so it could chill overnight. We made these cookies on our first St. Patrick's Day together in 2016, which was one day after our program began. We didn't even have an oven yet, so we baked them on our Pizza Pizazz thingy, shown below. Memories!
Now, in 2018, we have Team Cookie, consisting of Xavier, Patrick, Drew, Chloe, Devin, and Kevin, plus two large-sized toaster ovens, which made baking our cookies a cinch this year! We plan to make Blarney Stone cookies as a tradition every year.
Back at Team Cupcake, the different colors of batter were layered into the cups.
Our final product was colorful, as seen here! (Just so you know, everyone had to choose either cupcake or cookie for dessert!)
Most of our guys enjoyed visiting our "tattoo parlor" on party day. That was a fun activity, and a first for us!
Lexi's Gdad showed up at lunch time with yummy bbq sandwiches for everyone! Posing with him by his "Pigup" truck provided us a "play on words" lesson. We love seeing this truck and Gdad show up with lunch! Thank you for treating us today, Gdad!
Volunteer Pam W. joined us for our party. She brought us a yoga game she found on her travels. This will help us learn more about the practice, so we will probably really impress Patti now! Thanks for thinking of us, Pam!
Just for fun we got out our Pieface Showdown game. Sam is our 2018 champ...no one was able to beat him, but it was fun trying!
Look at their faces! Cameron didn't mind losing...the whipped cream was good!
Have we ever mentioned how much our guys love to play Bingo?! We ended our fabulous celebration day with a St. Patrick's Day version. Happy Anniversary to the Arc of Abilities!!
We found out on Thursday that we would not be going to Eaton on Friday since Jorie had some unexpected "visitors" coming to the site and would not be able to prepare for us. Undaunted, we just extended our anniversary celebration! Kacie's mom Stacey sent us some delicious homemade Irish Soda Bread, which we enjoyed after researching its origins. Thanks, Stacey. When we reminisced this week we came across a picture from last year when you made soda bread for us! We like "traditions!"
We decided to get outside on Friday because the weather promised to be sunny. It was still chilly by mid morning so we stayed at AFCC to eat our bag lunches. We then headed to New Quarter Park, which is located near Queens Lake, and is a hidden gem. It has an excellent paved trail for walking, as well as wooded trails, basketball courts, playgrounds, and more...plus great restrooms! We couldn't resist taking a lot of pictures to capture our relaxation and fun hanging out with each other at the end of our celebratory week. Here are scenes from our Friday afternoon:
After a couple of hours at the park, we ended our day with mini-ice cream sundaes as we looked forward to beginning our 3rd year of the AoA!
Here's what's on the agenda for next week:
Tuesday: It's back to bowling today and pizza for lunch! We also have plans to tour Williamsburg Fire Station 10 on our schedule today, after bowling. Depending on the weather (another nor'easter is forecast!), we may reschedule. Wear Arc shirts!
Wednesday: It's Panda Day so we will learn about those cute animals during our education time. We will welcome a Rotary volunteer to work with us in the computer lab, and it's YOGA with Patti today! Lunch on your own.
Thursday: We simply must celebrate National Goof Off Day, so we will do some silly things today! Everyone loves puppies, and it's also Puppy Day, so we will work that in, too. We're making Chicken Pasta Salad for lunch and since yesterday was California Strawberry Day, we will have strawberries as a side.
Friday: We will work at Eaton today, so please wear Arc shirts. It's Chips and Dip Day!! Bring a sandwich and fruit or veggies for lunch. We will provide a variety of chips and dips!
REMINDER:
-Sunday, April 15, 2 p.m. at The Kimball theater: You won't want to miss The Arc's screening of the documentary, "Life Animated." It's the real-life story of Owen Suskind, son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind. Owen is a young man with autism who, according to the website lifeanimateddoc.com, "was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films." The screening will be followed by a community discussion led by Owen's brother, Walter. This is a fundraiser for The Arc and ticket prices are $10 for adults, $5 for Arc clients/students. Invite your friends and family and plan to join us. Our AoA associates will love this story!
You can preorder tickets at this link! (Arc clients are $5 so order "student" tickets for them; all others are $10.)
Have a wonderful weekend,
Lisa, Carol, and Nan
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