Farewells to Sam and JaVante

 

We're happy to report that we survived a week of "Extreme Heat Warnings" as the temperatures soared into the 90s and the heat index rose above 100 most of the week!  We paced ourselves with very little time outside, and got through it like the troupers we are!  Our memory-making days included a visit to a new garden with our MG friends, lunch out at Sal's, a tour of the Williamsburg Regional Library, and a bittersweet party as we wished our AoA friend Sam, and Parks & Rec friend, JaVante a fond farewell!  We're going to miss them both.  Would you believe we also volunteered at Grove, created lovely flower arrangements for CSL, and worked at Eaton this week?  We wanted to head into our Summer Break week with a bang!

Tuesday, June 24

Despite the extreme heat warning, we felt we could manage about 30 minutes this morning with our master gardener friends to visit the Historic Triangle Community Garden, and wrap up our spring sessions with them.  This is a beautiful garden, located on Waller Mill Road, and we enjoyed meeting some additional MGs and seeing their beautiful spot!

Before leaving the school we made sure everyone was wearing sunscreen and had their water bottles.  From the parking lot we had a short walk to the Historic Triangle Community Garden.

While we gathered under some shade, Bill, an MG we met today, told us that this garden has been around for 15 years!  There were several sections to visit, so he divided us into two groups and we began our tour.

The Historic Triangle Community Garden began as a learning garden in 2010, and over the past 15 years has grown and evolved into a community garden where citizens can maintain plots for themselves, while other plots are maintained to serve organizations in the community that support families living with food insecurity.

We were able to harvest a few veggies today!  Gail and Bryan picked cucumbers, Erik snagged a green pepper, and Kate, Thomas, and Patrick pulled some carrots!

Barbara shared beautiful flowers from her yard!  We enjoy getting to keep the small bouquets the MGs always let us bring back to our center after sharing with us what's blooming in their yards.  Today's colorful blooms included firecracker gladiolus, a bloom from the butterfly bush, coneflowers, and blanket flowers.

After about a half an hour, we gathered for a group picture, and we won't lie...it was hot out there!  Still, we appreciate the opportunity to visit another wonderful garden that James City County and Williamsburg Master Gardeners maintain.  We saw healthy vegetables growing, and all kinds of herbs and beautiful flowers.  We learned tips for protecting plants from the bad bugs, and the best time to water during a heat wave.  

Thank you to all of the master gardeners who worked with us today!  We would love to visit again sometime when Mother Nature isn't making things so miserable!  Thanks, also, to our regular MGs for wonderful spring sessions.  From tree walks to seed bombs to planting and harvesting, it was so much fun, and of course, just HANGING out with you puts big smiles on our faces!  (We'll see you one more time on July 8 when we meet at Freedom Park to harvest our potatoes!)

Here's Carolyn's lovely journal page!  It was a very bright and sunny day!

We were excited to head to our next destination, Sal's restaurant, for lunch!  We only took a couple of photos, but suffice to say we had a great time.  Sal's was on point, got every order correct, and our food was hot and tasty!  Our guys enjoyed socializing with each other very much!  It was a really nice outing.  Thanks to our top-notch volunteer, Allison, for joining us today, too!

Those who ordered pizza got 2 slices and fries, too! 😋

Wednesday, June 25

We had a busy morning with our service projects.  A few of our friends were absent, so we split into two groups and took most of us to GCOC for food bag packing, and left the others to work on flowers for CSL.  We only got one photo of the flower group, but we got a few more of the group at Grove.  Bottom line, we made 12 pretty flower arrangements and packed over 100 bags of nonperishable foods, so it was a good service work morning!

Tom and Ursula worked with us today, and they helped us stay on track with the packing.  We appreciate their patience, as we had a couple of snafus with our accuracy today!  Our friends Peggy and Joel were both under the weather, so we hope they feel better soon.  Thank you, Ursula, for treating us to your delicious brownies this morning, and for including a gluten-free treat for Xavier!  We forgot to get a pic of that! 😕

After finishing our service projects, we took a walk in the gym, where it was cooler than outside, for sure!

We celebrated National Leon Day!  "Leon" is "Noel" spelled backward, and it's basically a day to recognize that Christmas is a mere 6 months from today!  It also recognizes that many crafters like to begin making homemade gifts and things about 6 months before the holidays.  We enjoyed playing Christmas music and we also made Christmas trees using coffee filters.  We'll pull them out in December and add some decorations as we think back to that day in June when we were in a heat wave making Christmas trees!

Only 6 more months...

After lunch, we made up our lesson on the American, or bald, eagle.  We had to postpone it from last week.  We watched an educational video, and then completed a sequencing activity about the lifespan of bald eagles.  Something cool we learned today is that female eagles are bigger than males!

Thursday, June 26

There aren't many places around town we haven't visited in our 9 years, but today, we had a new experience...we toured the Williamsburg Regional Library!  The tour didn't take very long, but we enjoyed meeting Melissa and learning about the different areas of the library, and materials that are available in each.  Many of our guys had never been in this library, so it was fun to see them soak in all the books between the downstairs and upstairs!

There is a large public area in the Williamsburg Regional Library with many computers that people can use.  They also have a Makerspace where folks can work on projects using things like 3-D printers.  There is a summer reading program taking place with a different theme each week, and anyone who would like a library card can visit the desk where we waved at the very busy workers!

Our guys enjoyed looking around at the wide variety of books and DVDs available for checking out.  Melissa told us the staff here would be more than happy to help us find resources on any topic!

Our tour ended in the library's beautiful theater, where Melissa had arranged a showing of Shrek for us.  She had to zip off to a meeting before we could get a photo with her, but here we are ready for the movie to begin.  We all agreed Shrek is one of those movies that is fun to watch every now and then...a real classic!  LOL!  We sure laughed a lot as we watched it!

We wish to thank Melissa and all of the friendly library staff members we met today for having us at the Williamsburg Regional Library.  It was exciting to learn that they have over 300,000 books!  

We returned to the school for lunch as we didn't have any desire to "enjoy" it being 94 degrees outside!  After eating, we delivered thank you cards for our custodians and JRES office staff.  They have been very helpful as we've been relocated to Room 144 for two weeks!

Karen was off today, but we got a picture with Lona and Heike as we put a smile on their faces with the thank you card we made!

Miss Andrea was the only office staff member available today, but we thank the entire team for making us feel welcome in Room 144, and for checking to make sure we had everything we needed!

Our last activity of the day was our annual lesson about July 4th.  Being the patriotic Americans we are, we never tire of learning about our country's history.

What better way to complement a July 4th lesson than a celebration of National Bomb Pop Day?!  A yummy ending to a hot summer day!  Note:  The air conditioning in Room 144 was great after Jerry stopped by last week to fix it.  That's why Liz and Nan (not pictured) wore jackets inside! 🥶

Friday, June 27

Work and then party...that was our goal for today!  As the early birds arrived, we enlisted their help in moving things back to our super shiny and clean room in AFCC.  Heike said it was ready and we didn't have to wait to July 8 to move back!  Again, we have to shout out Heike and her team for the wonderful job they do keeping this area clean!  

Kellie from the Arc office stopped by this morning to pick up four photo/story boards Carol and Lisa worked on this week for Sunday's Open House.  We hope to see you at our potential new forever home on McLaws Circle between 2-4!

Next, we traveled to Eaton where we sorted and gasketed hundreds of parts.   Teamwork at its finest!

Below, to Carol's left, is Ethan.  He's responsible for gathering up the work for us to do, and moving it to this room from the warehouse.  Thank you, Ethan, for all you do to make sure we have work to complete.  We hope it's a big help to you and the rest of the amazing Eaton team!

Standing with Devin, Sam, and Patrick is another of our Eaton friends, Kim.  Kim's desk/work space is in this room that we invade every couple of weeks!  We thank Kim for her kindness in helping us locate tools we sometimes need, and for taking time to chat with us even though we know she's busy! 

Another Eaton friend whose desk/work space is in this room is Ereka.  She can be seen in the green shirt standing behind Bryan in the photo below.  Like Kim, Ereka is always friendly, and quick to lend a hand if we need something.  She's fun to chat with, too!  We LOVE our Eaton friends!

When our Eaton work was done, it was party time!  We originally thought we would only be celebrating our friendship with JaVante, from Parks & Rec, who is headed to Knoxville to attend grad school at the University of Tennessee.  However, we learned this week that Sam is stepping away from the Arc of Abilities, so we celebrated our friendship, and bid farewell, to him, too!

After our tasty lunch of Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad and Fruity Jell-O (thanks Carol, Nan, and Lisa for doing prep work at home last night), we headed to the gym to send JaVante off with a game of corn hole.  When we first met him last year, corn hole was a game he had never played much.  He came to enjoy playing it with us every chance he got, and he became pretty good at it!

We missed Tracy today.  She was at a baseball tournament where her 8 year old daughter, Heidi, was the only girl who made the cut!  Yay, Heidi!  We welcomed Katrina with JaVante.  She's getting much better with her corn hole game, too!  

In fact, Katrina's team, The Volunteers, came in 1st place today!

JaVante's team, Tennessee, came in 2nd place...but we all felt like winners because we had a blast playing one last corn hole game with our buddy!

JaVante, we wish you all the best on your next adventure to UT!  We are very proud of you and know that you will shine as a graduate student.  It's exciting that your future includes working in adaptive sports, and we thank you for your love and support of friends like us!  We hope your path crosses ours again one day!

To our friend, Sam....We are going to miss you very much.  Who will be our history whiz now?  Thanks for over 9 years of fun and friendship at the Arc of Abilities.  We hope to catch up with you a little later this summer for an official farewell, since we ran short of time to make you special cards and a parting gift.  Meanwhile, enjoy the summer at the beach, and traveling here and there with your parents.  We will miss them, too.  💙💚💛

(Check out Heike and crew's shiny floors!)

As we told Sam "good-bye," we also wished each other a fun time off next week for Summer Break.  We will reopen, back in our regular room, on July 8.  See you then, and here's what we'll be doing to bring in July:

Tuesday, July 8:  We'll head to the lanes for bowling, and we'll have pizza and fruit for lunch.  We are also going to meet the master gardeners at Freedom Park to harvest the potatoes we grew!

Wednesday, July 9:  We'll arrange flowers for CSL and volunteer at GCOC, so please wear Arc shirts.  We'll also update our calendar for July, and celebrate National Sugar Cookie Day!  Lunch on your own.  Microwave available.

Thursday, July 10:  Today we welcome Kasey, the Arc's Programs and Vocational Assistant to substitute for Lisa, who is traveling through the 29th.  Kasey will join us as we celebrate Pina Colada Day (no alcohol, of course) and learn about Puerto Rico.  We'll also have a fun lesson about a poetry style called clerihews!  Lunch on your own.  Microwave available.

Friday, July 11:  Today we welcome our volunteer, Allison, who will substitute for Lisa until she returns.  Kasey will join us today and on a few more days, too.  She's going with the gang to PSP for our work day, so please wear PSP shirts.  The Cooking Crew will prepare meatball subs and French fries for lunch, as we celebrate National French Fry Day!  We'll also celebrate 7-11 Day by visiting the nearby store for free Slurpees after lunch!  Other activities will include cleaning and organizing the room, and hopefully using the gym for movement activities.  The floor, which was scheduled to be refinished July 3-10, should be ready by now!

Families, please be reminded that this will be the last blog post until August 2nd as Lisa will be traveling to Alaska beginning July 10!  Be on the lookout for an email she will send prior to leaving that will supply info needed for the weeks of July 15, 22, and 29. (Lisa returns on the 29th)

🏌🏌🏌 EVERYONE:  

It's not too late to sign up to play in the 10th Annual WOTM Golf Tournament on August 2nd, or to be a sponsor at any level!  This tournament supports The Arc and our Arc of Abilities Day Program!  Please reach out to Patti ("Moose Patti" to us), if you decide to support, and she will take good care of you!  Many thanks to all who have made donations or signed up to play.  Let's make this the best year yet!  🏌🏌🏌

Patti Sanford - 757-561-8947 (call or text)

poolstarter@msn.com

Thank you, Patti, Women of the Moose (WOTM), and Williamsburg Moose Lodge for your nearly 10 years of support for The Arc of Greater Williamsburg and the Arc of Abilities Day Program!  We are grateful for your friendship!

Enjoy the Weekend!

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang

Relocation 2025

Relocation Week 1 is in the books and it was a good one!  It helped that we had the Juneteenth holiday on Thursday, and were out and about on the other days.  We enjoyed a visit to The Mariners' Museum on Tuesday, and Freedom Park for a walk with our therapy dog friends on Wednesday.  On Friday. a group worked at Pet Supplies Plus, so we didn't have too many in the room that morning.  Friday afternoon was spent with Tracy and Janice, a new to us Parks & Rec friend, in the gym for :Longest Day of Play" activities.  It seemed as if the week flew by!

Tuesday, June 17

It was a drizzly morning when we headed to The Mariners' Museum.  Not to see Wisteria, but on our own this time.  We thought it would be fun (and cool on a warm June day) to try one of the museum's scavenger hunts.  We divided into groups and spent over an hour on the search!  It was fun!!

The scavenger hunt covered most of the galleries, and we found ourselves quickly finding some things because we were familiar with them from our experiences with Wisteria.  Other things we really had to search for, so we learned new things, too!

Gail tries to keep her balance on a portion of netting which sailors would use to cross from one side of a 72-foot catamaran to the other side.  It is made of a material stronger than steel.

Thomas got up to 86 rpms on a piece of "techno-gym" equipment in the Speed and Innovation Gallery!

Carol's group met up with Nan's group in the Exploration Gallery, and they set sail for who knows where!?  (Probably a lunch spot with Devin and Sam leading the way! 😂)

One of the highlights on the hunt was getting to ring the bell on the Monitor's deck!

After completing the scavenger hunt, everyone got to pick a prize from the treasure chest!  That was fun, and so was our morning at The Mariners' Museum, even if we were "on our own."

By noon the sun was trying to peek out, and it was steamy outside.  We decided to forgo walking on the Noland Trail.  "We walked all over the museum," said 5 people at once!  Besides that, "Everyone is starving," said 10 people at once!  So, we stopped at the shelter at Deer Park, where it was surprisingly pleasant, and ate lunch before heading back to the school.

We enjoyed a swig of root beer since today was National Root Beer Day.  We learned that the use of the sassafras tree to flavor root beer dates back to the indigenous people of Native America who didn't make root beer as we know it today, but used it for medicinal and cooking purposes.  (We were also reminded that we LOVE having a large screen, but taking pictures in front of it is kind of wonky!)

  
While we enjoyed the root beer, Lisa began reading the third and final book in the Wild Robot series.  This one is The Wild Robot Protects and, unlike the second book with 90 chapters, this one only has 80! 

We got an update from Michelle and Tessa today!  Michelle is on Summer Break from her teaching position, and will spend it working with Tessa at home, and also taking her for more rigorous outpatient physical therapy.  Look at how much Tessa's walking has improved just since we saw her a few weeks ago!  GO, TESSA, GO! 👐

This week, Tessa began field trips with Michelle and loved being out and about in the car!  She requested a visit to Pierce's for her favorite snack...fries!  Yum!  Her fine motor skills are much improved and she is using her thumb and pointer finger to pick things up.  Her stamina is much improved, too!  👏  She'll continue to work on balance and getting stronger every day!  KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, TESSA!  We love and miss you! 😘😘😘

Wednesday, June 19

It was quite warm and muggy yesterday, and that continued today as we seem to be getting into "real" summer.  It didn't stop us from meeting some of our therapy dog friends at Freedom Park for a walk, though!  Marisol, along with her corgis Tucker, Louis, and Nellie were our guides for today's walk, and they decided we would take it easy with a stroll through the garden with all of its shady paths.  Check out our adventure!

At the start of our walk Carol S. and Casey posed with a few of us.

As we got closer to the garden, you can see Marisol with Tucker, Louis, and Nellie up front along with Erik and Kevin.  Caroline and Pip, and Carol D. and Darby were behind them with the rest of our group.

Along the way, we met a master naturalist named Pat who was working on recreating a ravine.  She enthusiastically explained that a ravine like this would have been carved out of the earth tens of thousands of years ago when glaciers covered the land.  She pointed out that she had placed a Chesapecten Jeffersonian fossil here.  It's from an extinct form of scallop.  Pat said these particular types of fossils can be found all around our area, in places like Jamestown and York River State Park.  Later, we found out that it is also Virginia's state fossil.

We had an opportunity to share with our therapy dog friends that we work in the Therapeutic Garden with our master gardener friends!  We showed them the herbs, fruits, and veggies we are growing, including the potatoes, shown here with Xavier, Thomas, and Gail.  They seem to be dying back a little, so they may soon be ready for harvesting!  We'll see the MGs next week for an update.

We also checked the button bush tree that MG Rick showed us on our tree walk recently.  He said it would have white, fragrant blooms soon, and we saw them today!  They were very fragrant, and we noticed a lot of bees on them.

We continued our walk with Marisol and the others, noticing all kinds of interesting things.  The dogs were a little bit curious, but mostly they seemed to just enjoy walking with us!

Carol S. and Casey had to depart before we got our final pictures, but we thank all of our therapy dog and handler friends for meeting us today.  Liz's mom, Lise, joined us too!  We walked for about an hour and then said farewell after all the pups (and us) had a good drink of water! 

Caroline, Alexis, Lise, Laura, Pip, Liz, Darby, and Carol D

Thanks, Marisol, for being our cheerful guide today!  Your spirit is infectious, and your love for the "magical" Freedom Park really shows!  There is nothing like a good walk in nature to clear our minds and feed our souls!

Marisol, Abraham, Thomas, Gail, Emma, Xavier, Michelle, Erik, Devin, Sam, Patrick, Kevin (standing), Annmarie, Drew, Nan (on bench), and Louis, Nellie, and Tucker

Due to the steamy weather, we decided to return to the school and enjoy lunch in the cool cafeteria!

The next task was to arrange flowers for CSL and water the plants and feed the birds in the garden outside our AFCC window!  Divide and conquer!

We have cherry tomatoes on our plant!

We made an extra arrangement and delivered it to Walt, the very helpful IT guy at James River Elementary School.  Walt came to our rescue in Room 144 yesterday and taught us how to connect to the big screen with our Arc computer.  Turns out it was easy-peasy...the way he explained it!  He told us he will be here every day and to let him know if we need any more assistance!  Thank you, Walt!

 

We ended the day with a lesson about the significance of Juneteenth, and why it is a federal holiday.  June 19, 1865 is the anniversary of Union General Gordon Granger's arrival in Galveston, Texas to announce the freedom of enslaved Americans.  It had taken over 2 years for the enforcement of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation to reach all areas in Confederate territory. 

We learned that red foods and beverages are often served during Juneteenth celebrations to symbolize the bloodshed and sacrifices of enslaved people, and to also represent resilience and cultural heritage.  We thank Lisa for baking red velvet cookies at home last night for our enjoyment after this lesson!

Thursday, June 19

Friday, June 20

The Arc of Abilities was back in session this morning.  A crew stayed in Room 144 to work on thank you cards and begin prep work for a party we're having next week.  Our second crew headed to PSP to see how they could help.

While we are in Room 144 we can't see when our friends arrive, so Patrick and Alexis man the front door from 8:30-9:00 to let everyone in.  Thanks, Lexi and Pat!  

Devin, Lexi, Patrick, Emma, Abraham, and Laura were on the center crew.  (We had 5 friends absent today.)  They colored big letters to use in making banners, and also small pictures to use on some thank you cards.

This crew also composed letters for the thank you cards.  Here, Devin is being our editor as he proofreads one of them.  Our thank you cards were for the JRES office staff and custodial team.

After finishing the cards and party preps, this crew got in a bit of corn hole practice.

Over at Pet Supplies Plus, Kevin and Xavier helped Scott feed the fish.

Liz mentored Gail and Thomas on stocking the shelves, as they are still learning the ropes at PSP.  Thanks, Liz.  You are a good teacher!  (It helps to have great students like Gail and Thomas, too!)

Liz also taught Thomas how to "fold" towels by rolling them.

Bryan and Erik paid attention to detail as they stocked both fish and bird items.

Kevin also assisted Scott with washing down the dog bathing area.  Laura assisted Scott with this task last week, but we overlooked putting her photo in, so we added it today.  This was a new skill and they both did well with it!

AoA would like to showcase the beautiful and stylish clothes available at PSP for your pets.  Come check them out!  Scott and Roxanne, we appreciate you allowing us to work at your pet store.  We have learned so many skills and love seeing all the animals.  Thanks for your support, and for believing in us!

After lunch, Tracy came by to set up activities in the gym.  Parks and Rec was celebrating the summer solstice (longest day/shortest night of the year) with an event called "Longest Day of Play."  Tracy chose to host her activities at the gym at AFCC so we could be included!  First, she explained how the event would work, and also told us there would be prizes at the end!

 

Upon arrival in the gym, we walked a few laps and then participated in a stretching session.  Tracy's coworker, Janice, helped with the activity, too.  

The last activity was a team version of tic-tac-toe.  We enjoyed participating in the "Longest Day of Play," but we were glad Tracy brought the games indoors where it was cooler!

Everyone earned a prize for having fun and being active!  Thank you Tracy, and Janice, for a fun ending to our week.  We loved kicking off summer (officially) with you!

As we headed home for the weekend, we were thinking about the forecast for next week.  The heat index is going to be over 100 degrees, so we will need to pace ourselves.  Our plans have us out and about all week.  Be sure to bring water bottles each day, wear sunscreen as needed (especially Tuesday), and bring your hats for outside! (We have extra sunscreen and will take our water cooler so bottles can be refilled.)

Tuesday:  We'll meet our master gardener friends for a tour of the Historic Triangle Community Garden.  After this, we are going to Sal's for a pre-Summer Break celebration lunch. 😉 Please bring $12 for lunch, and you will get a choice of pizza or 1/2 sub, and fries.  After lunch we will return to Room 144 for choice time, read-aloud, and to make cards for Friday's honored guest!

Wednesday:  This morning we will arrange flowers for CSL and volunteer at GCOC, so please wear Arc shirts.  Other activities today will include a make up for American Eagle Day, and a "celebration" of National Leon Day, which always falls on June 25, six months before Christmas (hint:  Leon spelled backwards is Noel)!  Lunch on your own.  Microwave available.

Thursday:  We'll brave the heat long enough to load the vans for a trip to the Williamsburg Regional Library.  We'll take a tour and enjoy a movie in their theater.  The gang voted for us to watch Shrek.  We'll return to Room 144 for lunch on your own.  Microwave available.  After lunch we will squeeze in this year's July 4th lesson, and celebrate Bomb Pop Day with a cool treat!

Friday:  We are going to have a busy morning!  First, we will go to Eaton for a work session, so please wear Eaton shirts.  When we return to Room 144 we'll celebrate our friend JaVante who is not only having a birthday, but is preparing to move to Knoxville to attend grad school at the University of Tennessee.  We are going to miss him!  Lisa and Carol will prepare Chicken Pasta Caesar Salad and Jell-O with pineapple for lunch (at their homes Thursday evening).  JaVante requested this "specialty" dish of ours!  Oh, we have a special cake planned, too!

Reminder:  The Arc of Abilities will be closed July 1-4 for Summer Break.

Enjoy the weekend,

Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang