Welcome to June!

The month of June came in nicely for us on Tuesday with a warm and less humid day for our first Pool Party of 2019!  We had a great time at Kate's pool in Kingsmill.  Luckily for us, there were not very many other guests at the pool, so we had a lot of room to spread out and enjoy the sunshine and water.

Our guys played in the wading pool area, goofing off with each other, all in fun!  With Abraham and Patrick looking on, Sam splashed Alexis and Kacie.

   Xavier, Kacie, and Cameron enjoyed the relative calm of floating or swimming by themselves. 

Xavier is one who will stay in the water until he's "forced" out.  He loves it!

The Lazy River is very popular with our guys!

Laura and Dev shared a float for a few trips around the Lazy River.

Looks like Kate and Alexis decided to give Kacie a push and pull.  Is that Cameron making a getaway in the background?

This was after lunch, bellies filled with pizza and grapes!  Ahhh, the pool life!

Kate loved having her friends visit her pool!

More Lazy River fun as Abraham, Patrick, and Kacie make the rounds.

Here's Kevin!  He got in a float, but preferred to walk his Lazy River laps!

It was just the opposite with Annmarie.  Yeah...talk about the pool life!  We loved seeing our guys having such a good time.

Carol even got in on the Lazy River fun!  "Why not," she asked?! (But she was really keeping her eye on a couple of our guys.)

Drew decided to keep his shoes on today.  He was content to listen (and bop) to music and watch his friends from under the shade of an umbrella.  Did someone say pool life?! 😄

We can't thank Kate and her parents enough for helping us kick off Pool Party Season at their beautiful River Pool in Kingsmill.  The pizza lunch was fabulous, too.  And we can't thank them enough for ordering up some gorgeous weather!  We had a great time and truly appreciate their hospitality!

When we returned to the center after swimming, we found packages had been delivered.  Devin's grandmother sent us new games!  We will enjoy game time this summer and these new choices are just what we needed!  Thank you, Grandma Sarah, in New Jersey, for this fun donation.  We look forward to game time with our friends!!

Our volunteer and talented "artsy" friend Pam W. came on Wednesday to begin our special art project.  We were creating artwork with the theme of "Home" to donate to the Willamsburg Area Association of Realtors (WAAR) for their Community Day on Friday.  WAAR plans to sell our art and donate the the proceeds back to The Arc!

Pam spent time working with each of our associates to help them plan and create a special masterpiece.  We talked about the concept of home, and they had brought in pictures of their homes for inspiration.  Our final products are as unique as we are!

Once they began drawing/painting/coloring, they were only limited by their imaginations!  Pam worked the room and gently prompted each of them with ideas for adding more depth to their work, and over the course of the morning, detailed and colorful pictures emerged.

We used stencils, tracing blocks, sponges, watercolors, acrylic paints, crayons, pencils, and even Sharpies to add special touches to our work.

Here, Pam tried to coax Xavier into using his finger to paint eggs in the bird's nest.  He wasn't too interested in trying that technique, but he was happy to paint with the brush! He had chosen a picture of an eagle's nest to represent "home" for his inspiration.

Nan came over to check the progress at this table and she liked what she saw.  It was cool to see the various interpretations our guys had of the same theme!

We were busy on Wednesday with our Rotary friend, Chuck, too!  He worked on social studies with us in the lunch room.  Laura and Annmarie enjoyed showing him their knowledge of community workers, safety, and transportation.

We worked on art and computer lab for most of the morning, but had time before lunch for Disney trivia.  Friends gathered around Big Red for a fun round of questions.

Patti worked with us on balance again during yoga.  Today we found it interesting that we have one side that is easier to balance on than the other.

Patti said that's because we favor one side, and if we want to improve our balance on the "wobbly" side, we need to practice things like reaching for things with our nondominant hand or starting steps on our nondominant foot.  That would take a lot of thinking ahead, probably with the nondominant side of our brain!

After yoga we had time to try one of our new games that Devin's grandma got for us!  In this one, you are given a category and have to name 3 things that fit it within 5 seconds.  We started without the timer, though.  It was fun, and some of our answers were pretty clever!

We continued working on our art for the WAAR Community Day sale on Thursday.  Pam W. was able to be with us again, and we were busy.  Not only was Pam a huge help (and inspiration), but the associates were great in helping AND encouraging each other.  Nan, Carol, and Lisa buzzed around helping, and learning a lot about artistic touches from Pam!  It was a productive, FUN, and satisfying team effort!

Thanks, again, Pam!  We are a group of proud artists and can't wait to display our work at the WAAR Art Show tomorrow.  (Shout out to Kevin, who was traveling with his family today, but the piece in Sam's left hand is his!)

Thank goodness Kacie, Nan, and Liz remembered we needed to prepare lunch on Thursday.  They took care of making our pigs in a blanket!  Thanks, Gals!

Wednesday was National Running Day.  On Thursday, we were excited to welcome Devin's brother, Christian, as our special presenter on the topic.  He is a sprinter for the Northeastern Huskies college team (in Boston).  He brought jerseys, shoes, medals, and more for us to see!

Christian is an excellent presenter.  He's only 20 years old, but he captured our attention with stories about his successful track career!

He has won A LOT of medals.  It was cool that he brought enough of them to share so that each of our guys got to hold one!  (That's his rightfully proud mom, Roxanne, standing on the sidelines. 😍)

Christian took time to explain about these medals to Laura.  He patiently answered her questions and made sure to get down to her eye level. 

Next, it was time to stretch and warm up before we went outside to try sprinting!

Here's Christian in his "runner's tights" which we thought made him look like a superhero!  He's as fast as one!

This is the position that runners take on the track (usually with blocks) before the start of a race.  We don't usually begin running from this position, but Christian said it helps him get off to a really fast start.

We were in the field behind the school, which Christian estimated to be almost 100 meters long.  At our urging, he agreed to sprint down it so we could see how fast he is. (Around 15 seconds!) This was great! (We are still challenged with rotating our video clips...so please rotate your screen for optimal viewing. 😜)

We used Christian's baton to have our version of a relay!

At the end, we all cheered for ourselves!  What a really fun time we had with Devin's brother!  

Thanks, Christian, for hanging out with us and sharing your knowledge of track and running.  We learned a lot and will be excited now to watch track events.  We're going to follow you and the Northeastern Huskies in the upcoming school year!!  THANKS ALSO for the ice cream sandwich treats!

We took time before ending the day to discuss that Thursday was the 75th anniversary of D-Day.  We watched a video that was "kid" friendly and explained why the United States was involved in WWII and the significance of the D-Day invasion.  

We also watched a clip that showed how the anniversary was being commemorated in Normandy, France, and included the story of a former paratrooper, who is now 97 years old, and decided to jump out of a plane again.  We thought that was incredible!

We kicked off Friday morning with the realization that SEVEN of our friends were not with us for a variety of reasons (including Sam, Bo, and Xavier who were swimming at the Special Olympics State Games in Richmond). We didn't let that, or the impending rain, dampen our celebration of National Donut Day!  Liz and her mom, Lise, have treated us to donuts on this day for "years" and we appreciate their generosity!  This year, the delicious donuts came from Duck Donuts.  Thank you, Liz and Lise, for this sweet treat!  It made our morning! 🍩🍩🍩

Next, we were off to the Community Day event sponsored by WAAR.  It was time to showcase our beautiful artwork!

Being a tall dude, Devin was able to help Carol and Annmarie's mom, Teresa (who is a member of WAAR and was instrumental in forging our relationship with them), get the artwork on display.

We all posed with our executive director, Pam, before heading to check out the other displays.  Our art looked fabulous!!!!  We didn't get a picture of any of them, but we would like to thank the many AoA family members who were able to stop by and visit with us at Community Day.  Thanks for purchasing art work and baked goods, too!  We appreciate our families' support so much. 💚💜

On the way to Community Day, we stopped by the office and exchanged our usual ride from Parks & Rec for this beauty from The Arc of GW so we could show it off at the event!  Part of WAAR's mission in "adopting" us this year is to help The Arc gain awareness of our mission and vision within the community.  We thought having the bus there would help!

Parked nearby was the Shred-it truck that several of our family members took advantage of for free shreding today!  Thanks, WAAR!

Our gang enjoyed visiting the James City County fire truck.  The friendly firefighters showed us everything and answered lots of questions.

Meet Master Officer McDowell from the James City County Police Department.  He gave us an excellent presentation on self-defense!

Master Officer McDowell not only explained tips and strategies for protecting ourselves against unwanted advances, but he let our guys practice on him!  Here, he helps Kacie show us how to pull her forearms up in a quick motion so as to "go after the thumbs" of the attacker.  The thumbs are not strong enough to resist this movement.  When she adds a step back, it helps to disarm him from her.

We learn well from hands-on lessons, and this was literally a hands-on lesson!  You can see how he is holding Annmarie's arm in this picture and how he straddles her arm between his thumb and the rest of his hand.  If she forcefully jerks her arm in a upward motion, it will help to loosen his grip.  Thank you for your very informative presentation, Master Officer McDowell.  We learned new things and feel more prepared to use our "strong voices" and own strength to protect ourselves!  

Before heading back to AFCC, we took several group shots with vendors and sponsors of the Community Day fair.  This is us with Lauriane from Atlantic Bay Mortgage, a primary sponsor of the event.

This is us with Alona Casanave, owner of Smart Bodies Pilates.  She enjoyed meeting and chatting with us!  We were surprised and thankful when she presented us with a donation.  Check out her site at https://www.smartbodiespilates.com/ . She and her team can help you improve your health and well-being!

Our guys are flashing great big smiles because our friends at WAAR put together a huge bake sale and they had just given everyone free samples. Yes, WAAR is very good to us!  We can't thank them enough for all they are doing to bring awareness to The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and to support our programs, too.  Thanks, WAAR!  We're friends for life!

Shortly after we got our goodies, the skies began to open up, so we headed back to AFCC for a late lunch and a bit of Friday Free Time.  We were happy as could be after our very exciting week!

There are lots of fun plans on the schedule for next week, too.  Here's what you need to know:

Tuesday:  We're hanging out with our master gardener friends today in the Botanical Garden at Freedom Park.  Depending on the weather, we may spend time outside after lunch...or we may head back to AFCC to finish up some projects from last week.  Wear Arc shirts and bring a bag lunch!

Wednesday:  Happy Birthday to our volunteer Pam W. today!  She's traveling in Europe now, but we will make cards for her (hopefully "artsy" ones since her lessons with us from last week are still fresh).  We'll enjoy our new board games today and have yoga with Patti, too.  Dress to stretch!  Lunch on your own (today and tomorrow are the last days to purchase from the cafeteria).

Thursday:  Tomorrow is Flag Day and Flip Flop Day so we will have activities centered around both of them today.  Bring a pair of flip flops for our fun games!  We will also prepare a special memento for the dads (and those like dads) since Father's Day is Sunday.  Lunch on your own...and TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ORDER FROM THE CAFETERIA UNTIL SEPTEMBER!

Friday:  We're going to Eaton for a work day today!  Please wear Arc shirts and bring a bag lunch! After work Frosties, anyone?!

SAVE THE DATES!  

We have some big fundraising events on the horizon.  We are seeking sponsors for both the WOTM Golf Tournament at Kingsmill and the Williamsburg Landing 5K for The Arc.  There are multiple levels of sponsorships available for each event, so please let Lisa or Pam McGregor know if you are interested!  Thank YOU!  

🏌🏌 Also, families:  We need as many associates as possible to volunteer at the WOTM golf tournament on August 3rd.  Please check your calendars and pencil it in if you can! 🏌🏌

And speaking of our WOTM friends, the first FUNdraiser they ever held for us was their July 4th picnic in 2016.  They have been designating donations collected from that annual event to the AoA ever since.  This year's picnic will be on Sunday, July 7th from 12-5.  Great food, games, dancing, and live music from Sammy Lee!  Associates are free and it's only $10 for everyone else.  That's at the end of our "summer break" week, but hopefully lots of us can come out and thank our WOTM friends for their generous support and love!

June 22 - Rotary Concert Series at The Kimball

June 29 - Aktion Club Car Wash (C&F Bank on Longhill Rd)

June 28 - Jamestown Jams

             July 7 - Women of the Moose "July 4th" Picnic 

July 26 - Jamestown Jams

August 3 - Women of Moose Golf Tournament at Kingsmill

August 30    Jamestown Jams

October 5 - 10th Annual Williamsburg Landing 5k for The Arc 

AS ALWAYS, MANY THANKS TO ALL OF OUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS FOR YOUR SUPPORT,

Lisa, Carol, and Nan