Happy 6th Anniversary, Arc of Abilities!

Happy Anniversary to the Arc of Abilities as we mark 6 marvelous years!  It's only fitting that we opened on the day before St. Patrick's Day in 2016, as the "luck of the Irish" has been with us ever since.  

In fact, our Arc of Greater Williamsburg's dedicated leader is IRISH!  Yep!  Pam McGregor, Executive Director of the Arc of GW, is a proud Irish gal (96%), and we are grateful for her leadership and support.  In addition to Pam, we are so appreciative of the staff at The Arc.  Bette Faye, Anna, and Carrie provide additional love and support.  

We are equally thankful for our wonderful Arc Board of Directors, our extremely supportive families, and our many loyal friends, all of whom have been here for us along this amazing journey.  

We have come a long way over these years, and are a thriving and vibrant program that hopes to keep evolving and growing!  Here's a look at our celebratory week.

Tuesday

We had a busy morning before going to visit Christina at the Art Museums.  Check out this house made from used plastic bottles!  After our dance warm up and blog check, we watched Mystery Doug's lesson about how plastic is made.  We learned it is made from parts of oil combined with acid!  Mystery Doug said plastic has a "good side and a bad side," and we agree.  Inside this house is plastic furniture!  We're not sure we would find that very comfortable!

We needed a few more decorations so our room would be colorful for tomorrow's anniversary celebration, so we colored shamrocks by using different shades of green and different textured backgrounds when we colored them.  Alexis and Patrick found the metal on the cart gave their shamrocks a unique textured look after they placed the paper on the cart and colored in the picture.

  

Liz found the cabinet door to be a unique texture.  We did this project a few years ago, too.  

These are Kate's hands as she tries the pool table top as a textured background.  She also shows how we used many shades of green.

After adding some St. Patrick's Day stickers, the shamrocks turned out like this, and will make a nice addition to our decorations!

Of course, we had to make sweet birthday cards for our beloved Meemaw, aka, Drew's grandmother.  She was a dedicated volunteer before Covid, and we miss her!  

Here's a picture of Meemaw's birthday celebration from our VERY FIRST BLOG POST in March, 2017.  You'll spot a few of our current members, along with some other friends we've had in the AoA along the way!  Happy Birthday on Monday to you, Meemaw!  We wish you a happy year to come!  🎈🥳🎉🎂

After an early lunch, it was time to meet Christina at the Art Museums of CW.  Our lesson today had us learning about the "stories" behind a few of the pictures.  We began by learning that Edward Hicks, known for his "Peaceable Kingdom" paintings and someone we have learned about over the years with Christina, got his start painting carriages and signs, such as the one shown near Christina depicting the business of a carpenter and joiner, who had you covered from beginning to end...he could build anything from baby cradles to coffins!

We learned that the artist who painted this beautiful scene called "Summertime" was a Polish immigrant who settled in New York.  His name was Karol Kozlowski, and he loved to use simple, patterned forms and muted pastels to create his colorful pieces.  He also probably had autism, and we found that to be both interesting and not really all that interesting.  He was simply a very good artist!

Do you know who this lad is?  He is Prince William, also known as, the Duke of Gloucester, for whom DoG Street is named in Colonial Williamsburg!  He was one of Queen Anne's children in the late 1600s.  She had 18 children and they all died before birth or in infancy, except for William, who lived to the age of 11.  What a sad and tragic story, that we could not really imagine, except when we remembered that "modern medicine" didn't exist yet.  When Prince William died in 1700, Williamsburg was just becoming a Colonial town, and the street was named for him at that time.  Now you know!

This is Issac Barre.  He was a member of the English Parliment, who had served in the British army during the French and Indian War, during which time he came to respect the work-ethic of the colonists.  Afterward, he became a member of Parliment, and when King George decided to impose the Stamp Act on the colonists (one event that subsequently led to the Revolutionary War), Barre spoke up in support of them.  He even coined the term, "Sons of Liberty" to refer to the colonists, and told England that it was not fair to tax them as they were working hard to create a lasting and strong country.  Wow...he was brave to speak out in support of the British colonists who went on to win the Revolutionary War and become independent Americans! 

Inside the Education Studio, Christina gave each of us a small, blank book and told us we could tell our own stories on its pages.  Sam, Laura, Cameron, and Xavier got busy designing their covers.

Christina sat with Michelle, Patrick, Devin, and Drew and helped inspire them with ideas!  Thank you, Christina, for always inspiring us all!  We love the stories and tidbits you share with us about the beautiful art within the walls of the museums.  We have learned so much in the almost 5 years we've been visiting with you!  💙💚💛💜

Before we left, Erik shared part of his work with Alexis, Devin, and Patrick!

UPDATE:  Patrick was proud to show us on Wednesday that he had added to his story when he got home.  He added pictures of his favorite player, Chipper Jones, to his baseball story!  Great job, Pat!

We had time after our visit with Christina to stop by Parkway Printshop and pick up our new AoA t-shirts.  Lisa introduced us to Anthony, who got approval from everyone when he showed us the new shirt!  

Wednesday

Today's the day we reflect upon our AoA "story" and celebrate our 6 years together!  We planned to celebrate all day, starting with our dance warm up!  Happy 6th Anniversary to us!

We spent time reminiscing about "the old days" by checking past blog posts.  The blog wasn't started until one year after we began, in March of 2017, so for the first year, we only have pictures.  Lisa put some of them in a PowerPoint presentation a few years ago, and today we enjoyed looking at pictures from our beginning.  We have had a lot of friends pass through the AoA, and we are grateful for having known all of them!  As of this week's blog post, we have 14 participants...and are expecting number 15 within a few weeks!  😉

We ran short on time while reminiscing, so we didn't get to learn about pandas for Panda Day.  We'll squeeze it in next week.  After sharing some of our favorite memories, it was time to party!  Annmarie and friends helped get the tables ready.

Soon, we were ready and Liz's mom and dad, Lise and Greg, had arrived along with the lunch of salad and baked ziti from Sal's they were treating us to for our anniversary!   

Thank you so much, Lise and Greg, for our delicious lunch!  It hit the spot for sure, and we enjoyed it.  We're so glad you could join us.  Thank you also for sharing your daughter, Liz, with us.  She is a kind friend to all, and a very good helper to Lisa, Carol, and Nan!  AND, thank you, Greg, for your work on behalf of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg in your role as a board member.  We appreciate your dedication! 

(Note to the curiously observant:  That is not a black snake on the table...it is three pairs of black tongs that were randomly placed on the table in that configuration! 🐍)

After lunch, we got a surprise.  Liz and her mom had selected a gift for us!  Lise said it was Liz's idea, and we're not surprised!  Liz has a knack for thinking of nifty things that we need.  💝  It was in this bag and Liz told Devin to try to guess what it was!  We don't think he, or any of us, would have ever guessed what it was...

It's a balloon air pump and it inflates balloons speedy quick!  Liz delighted in showing surprise visitor Tracy how this amazing electric gizmo works.  It's a cute little red pig, wearing sunglasses, that we named "Anni" (short for "Anniversary.")

Before we continue talking about Anni, we must thank Tracy and JCC Parks and Recreation for the many things they do in support of the AoA.  We truly appreciate that we have the use of AFCC for our program site, the county vans for our travels, and so many friends at Parks and Rec who make sure we are comfortable and able to thrive at this location!  Thank you, one and all!  👏👏

Liz delighted further in training Alexis to use Anni!  Anni is going to be lots of fun, and much needed as we gear up for April's birthday season!  Thank you, Liz, and Lise, for this useful and fun gift!!! 🎈🎈🎈🐖🎈🎈🎈

Our next surprise visitor was Ms. Washington, principal at JRES.  She had hoped that assistant principal, Ms. Vallone, would be able to come with her, but a naughty child disrupted those plans!  Hopefully, Ms. Vallone will be able to stop by soon.  Meanwhile, Ms. Washington spent several minutes chatting with us, getting to know us better, and promising to be a more frequent visitor in the future.  We hope so!  She also told us that it is ok to start thinking about getting back into the library to volunteer!  Yay!  Also, we look smashing in our new "Arc of Abilities" shirts in heather navy!

Even though we had danced and taken part in a video workout this morning, a nice walk to the outdoor classroom near the end of the day felt good, too!  Thank you JRES, for sharing your campus with us!  We appreciate being able to access the outdoor areas for movement and fresh air!

Thank you from the Arc of Abilities to ALL of our family members, friends, and the entire staff and Board of Directors of The Arc of Greater Williamsburg.  You are here for us and we deeply appreciate your loyal and enduring support!

Thursday

What comes after our anniversary date of March 16?  Why, St. Patrick's Day, of course!  That luckiest of days that coincides with the beginning of our AoA, and we love to celebrate it each year.  The gang was the greenest ever this year!

Not long after she arrived, we noticed Michelle was using a pair of scissors to tighten a loose screw on the air hockey table.  She did a great job (though we don't recommend using scissors!!), and proudly announced, "I learned it from my grandpa!"  💗

We received more surprises today.  Laura brought an anniversary gift which Xavier revealed to be a small, but powerful, Bluetooth speaker.  This is perfect for us, as Liz usually has to bring her speaker from home so we can listen to music at Eaton.  We gave this one to Liz to test, and she gave it a big thumbs up!  Thank you, Palmer Family, for thinking of this for us!  We will use it often and it will bring us lots of joy, as we love our tunes!!

When Nan arrived today, she had another surprise for us!  Patti had left an envelope at Nan's house when she cleaned yesterday, and it held a generous donation for us!  Patti and a lot of Moose Lodge members have game nights on Monday, and they decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to the AoA this week.  They ask that we use it for something fun. 😍  We'll be thinking, and will let them know what we get to do, thanks to their generosity!  

Alexis and Lisa stopped by the Moose Lodge on the way home to give Patti our thank you notes.  She was there getting ready to cook a St. Patrick's Day meal for the members.  Thank you, Patti and Williamsburg Moose 757.  We are truly blessed by your loving friendship!

We also made thank you notes for Liz's parents for the delicious lunch they treated us to yesterday.  Abraham and Erik did a nice job of expressing our appreciation!

We put our new balloon pump, Anni, to use today so we could play a St. Paddy's Day version of pool noodle volleyball.  Liz inflated green and gold balloons in a jiffy!

This game got kind of loud, as the green balloon became a leprechaun chasing the gold one, which was....gold!  Everyone used their noodles effectively so neither the leprechaun nor the gold would get popped.  This went on for a long time!

Soon, we decided to take it to the hallway so we could stand up and play.  This is really a fun game, and it gives us a fair cardio workout, especially when we play with two balloons.  Eventually, the gold balloon popped, and our game ended with the disappointed "leprechaun" being popped by Sam and put in the trash!  Better luck next year!

This picture represents us continuing a tradition that began on the AoA's second day, March 17, 2016.  We had none of the many useful gadgets and appliances that we've acquired since, but Drew's mom sent us a "rotating oven" called Pizzaz Plus.  Since it was St. Patrick's Day, we decided we would bake Blarney Stone Cookies and we've been using the Pizzaz Plus for this very thing ever since! Drew got the first sample of today's cookies, and gave them a thumb's up!

  

We played St. Patrick's Day Bingo before lunch.  Kate was the first lucky winner!

Devin and his family sent us some beautiful cookies for St. Patrick's Day, and Kevin was happy to try one.  We decided to save our Blarney Stone Cookies for tomorrow so we could enjoy these tasty gems.  Thanks, Dev and family!  That was very thoughtful of you!

With tomorrow being an Eaton day, we moved yoga to this afternoon.  Look at our cute yogis!!  Green is their color!

Friday 

Our team had another productive day at Eaton.  Our camera battery died and had to be put on the charger, but we got a few pictures of the day.  We really enjoyed listening to music with the new Bluetooth speaker we got from Laura's family, but we forgot to get a picture of that.  Trust us, it sounded fantastic!  🎶🎶🎶

Kesha had to bring over more labels for the PowerSlide Door Team because we were cranking out the product today!  Sam handled unpacking and Michelle inserted lenses, while Alexis, Nan, Carol, and Liz added labels.

Next, the doors went to Xavier, Devin, and Kevin who loaded them up with nuts and bolts before giving them to Erik who used the electric screwdriver to tighten them up.  Altogether, our team assembled 231 doors today!

Annmarie and Laura were so happy to see the camera that they blew the photographer a kiss!  They worked diligently to unpack many packages of assorted parts.

Kate and Patrick encouraged Drew today as he stuck with the challenging task of counting 25 screws by placing each one upright on the counting sheet, so they wouldn't roll off the table.  It didn't take Drew long to get in the groove, and together, these 3 quickly filled bags with 100 screws in each!

Jorie was excited for Drew's accomplishment!

Back at AFCC, Ms. Vallone finally caught up with us!  She had been trying all week to come down and wish us a "Happy Anniversary."  She's the assistant principal at JRES, and we have been friends with her the entire 6 years we've been here!

It's been a couple of Covid years since we have played pool, but Devin and Erik got it going today.  They weren't really competitive.  They were happy cheering for each other!

Spring begins on Sunday.  We noticed hyacinths blooming in our master gardener pots outside the window, and right on time.  Welcome, Spring!

We're hoping for nice weather as spring begins next week.  We'll be busy with these activities:

Tuesday:  We're going to try to enjoy a picnic and walk around Jamestowne Island again as it was too chilly the last time we planned it.  Please bring a bagged lunch and wear your Arc shirt!  Also, if you have an Access Pass (National Park Service), please bring it.  Thanks!  We will welcome spring with some brain work in the morning while we wait for the sun to, hopefully, come out!

Wednesday:  Lisa will not be here today, but Nan and Carol will keep us busy as we celebrate National Goof Off Day, which was yesterday!  We will finally have Panda Day, which we kept running out of time for last week, play a silly game, watch a movie, and make a lunch of PB&J sandwiches, fresh fruit, and chips and dip.  It's National Chip and Dip Day! 

Thursday:  Today we will have a lesson with Mystery Doug, make a spring craft, have a lesson on the Revolutionary War to prepare for next week's trip to Yorktown, and make cards for some special family members as we look ahead to Tuesday being Mom and Pop Business Owners Day! 😉  Lunch on your own.  JRES Cafeteria is serving Domino's Pizza or Sub of the Day.

Friday:  We will send a group to Pet Supplies Plus today, so please wear your PSP shirts!  The Cooking Crew will stay at AFCC and  prepare a lunch of pasta with tomato sauce and a spinach side salad so we can celebrate National Spinach Day, which is tomorrow!  We will introduce our gang to J.R.R. Tolkien today, too, as we see what National Tolkien Reading Day is about.  We'll end our week with yoga, so wear comfy pants with your PSP shirts!

Happy Spring,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

P.S.

We have a couple of FUNdraisers coming up that will benefit The Arc of Greater Williamsburg!  Click on the images below for more info about each event.  Hope to see you there!

April 23 - High Street

May 14-21 and May 22 - various locations