Arc of Abilities: Almost Back to Normal!

Things felt almost back to normal this week as we welcomed 13 members on Tuesday! A few were still out here and there for various reasons during the week, but we're happy to report that Covid is behind us and everyone is healthy! We kicked off our 9th season with the master gardeners on Tuesday, volunteered at GCOC and made flower arrangements for CSL on Wednesday, celebrated National Peanut Day and cooked a fun dish on Thursday, and had double the fun on Friday when we worked at PSP and visited with Christina at The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg! It was a quick week!

Tuesday

It was back to feeling like fall again this morning, but we didn't mind. We were heading to the garden at Freedom Park to begin our fall sessions with the master gardeners. It's our 9th season with them! WOW!

Several of our gardener friends couldn't make it today, but we worked with Jay, Carolyn, and Barb, and before the session was over, Krafty Karen joined us! (She had an appointment to follow up with her surgeon after her neck surgery from last month. She's making progress, but it's slow going.)

Our herb of the day was salvia/sage. We learned that culinary sage is the one we recognize from the aroma of stuffing at Thanksgiving, and ornamental sage is flowery, and we usually call it salvia. Barb said hummingbirds really like the blue-black salvia.

Annmarie gave some red salvia a sniff. It was less fragrant than the culinary sage. Another plant in this family that we are familiar with is pineapple sage, which also has red flowers and actually smells like pineapple. We've used it before in cookies!

Barbara selected all kinds of fall veggies for us to plant! We can't wait to see how our cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, collards, Swiss chard, and Brussels sprouts do over the next few weeks!

Barb, Bryan, and Gail also planted seeds so we can grow beets, carrots, spinach, and lettuce. Yum!

We didn't get a picture with Krafty Karen after she arrived later, but she can be spotted in the background of this pic where Barb was showing us a picture of a monarch caterpillar that is in her garden at home. She said she has at least 3 of them. We're so happy Karen felt up to stopping by this morning, and we continue to keep her in our thoughts as she recovers!

Today was Ants on a Log Day! Before heading to the garden, Emma and Devin teamed up to prepare some edible ants on a log, and we took them to share with the master gardeners. A tasty and healthy treat that was a big hit!

The pumpkin we spotted last Tuesday when we did a garden check has almost doubled in size in a week!

The gardeners cut it for us, so we could take it to the center to enjoy as we get ready for the fall season. Devin said it wasn't too heavy, and he was very careful carrying it to the van for us!

Our next stop was the picnic area at the Warhill Sports Complex. We ate lunch at the shelter and then visited the new playground area. Believe it or not, our guys get a lot of exercise on a playground! There was plenty of climbing, sliding, swinging, bouncing, and whirling!

We had a great day!

Wednesday

Our service work day got started with Michelle, Alexis, Liz, and Laura reporting to the JRES Library to shelve books. It was nice to have library workers back after last week's absences, and it's nice to know that the students are checking out enough books to keep them busy!

Carol took a group of 7 to help with packing food distribution bags at GCOC. Devin, Liz, Xavier, Bryan, Annmarie, Laura, and Kevin worked alongside Peggy, Joel, Ursula, and Tom. We were joined by the Arc's Kasey, too. This was her first time seeing us in action at Grove. She was at the end of the table helping Joel put twist ties on the bags. She did a great job! 😊

Thank you, Ursula, for the delicious chocolate chip cookies, and for including Xavier with your equally delicious gluten-free meringue treats! We would volunteer with you guys no matter what, but we sure do enjoy your and Peggy's thoughtfulness in making treats for us! 💞💞💞

While Carol's group packed groceries, the rest of us at the center were busy creating flower arrangements for CSL. We loved the assortment of flowers sent by Trader Joe's this week, especially the bright pops of yellow. With a little help from Nan, Allison, and Lisa, the guys had a dozen jars filled with pretty arrangements in no time! Great job Abraham, Alexis, Michelle, Gail, Erik, Thomas, and Drew!

Right in the middle of flower arranging, we had a lockdown drill. We moved immediately to the girls' locker room where we waited quietly for a few minutes until someone from the JRES office staff told us we did an excellent job and could resume our regular activities!

Once the GCOC group was back and the flower arranging was cleaned up, it was time for a visit from Marisol, one of our therapy dog handlers, and her corgis Tucker, Louie, and Nellie. This was another "bonus" visit from Marisol who absolutely loves spreading joy and comfort with her corgis. They are especially popular on campus at W&M, where they visit with students every Tuesday and Friday!

We cuddled with the pups, introduced them to Kasey (she was smitten!), sang, played games, and read books. It was a delightful visit, and we can't thank Marisol enough for the extra attention beyond what we get on "regular" therapy dog visitation day (which is next week). It's win-win for us all!

Bryan, Devin, Alexis, Liz, and Laura were our readers today. They did a great job reading books about corgis to all of us!

Marisol told us the corgis can sing...if we would agree to sing their favorite song...this was so much fun!

Later in the afternoon we heard from Devin, Laura, and Kevin about trips they took last week. Devin visited Disney World and Nashville. His family sent us some goodies that included pencils, pens, and stickers. Laura spent last week in Southern Nags Head and she read from the postcard about what a nice time she had. Kevin showed pictures and videos his mom texted to Lisa of his family's trip to Denver. Kevin got to attend a Colorado Buffaloes football game and meet the mascot, Chip. We could tell all three of our friends had great times with their families, and we enjoyed hearing all about their adventures!

Can we just say it was another great day?!

Thursday

This morning our friend Lauren from GCOC stopped by to tell us she was expecting volunteers from Dominion Power to work in the garden, and we should come back there and see the progress that has been made already. After our dance warm up, we noticed workers from Dominion walking toward the back so we followed them out and couldn't believe how much better the garden is looking!

The left side of the garden has been cleared and several overgrown shrubs and trees have been removed. Today, volunteers from Dominion Power came to work on the right side (bottom left photo). Laura noticed our herb garden has been moved, but we're ok with that.

The community is invited to stop by this Saturday, September 13, at 11:00 when Grove Christian Outreach Center is going to re-dedicate the Rob Till Community Garden. We worked with Mr. Rob in the garden for a couple of years when the day program began, before he passed away unexpectedly in 2019. It's nice to see GCOC step in to revitalize this community treasure.

National Peanut Day is on September 13, but we celebrated today as we had time to cook...and we wanted to try a new recipe! First, we reviewed what we already know about peanuts, and then learned some new things. Peanuts are not nuts, they are legumes, which means they grow as a seed in a pod. Nuts grow on trees! Peanuts also generally pack more protein per ounce than tree nuts. We enjoyed our samples of roasted peanuts!

The new recipe we wanted to try was for Peanut Chicken. Our crew pulled together to create a tasty dish that we all enjoyed!

Kevin gathered ingredients to mix our sauce; the main ingredient was peanut butter! Emma and Michelle sliced, diced, and sauteed the onions, and both of them cried a little! Alexis and Erik used the ulu knife that Lisa bought in Alaska to cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. They liked the way it worked!

We added steamed rice and veggies thanks to Gail and Drew. Liz, Kate, Abraham, Devin, Xavier, Thomas, and Bryan worked together to prepare napkin rings and decorate the white board. Laura showed off our delicious meal!

We watched a cool video about how Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are made in the factory. Therefore, we felt entitled to try the junior-sized ones for dessert!

🙏🙏🙏

We felt a sense of solemnity this afternoon as we marked the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. We discussed what happened by looking at photos, and tried to explain why the terrorists thought they should carry out such atrocious attacks. We also noted that today is also referred to as Patriot Day, and stressed the importance of being kind, accepting, and responsible citizens...and also never forgetting what happened and the lives that were lost on 9/11.

Friday

We hit the ground running and never stopped today! One group worked at Pet Supplies Plus and the other group worked on projects at the center. After lunch, we all headed to The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg for a visit with Christina!

Thomas, Liz, Laura, Emma, Abraham, and Kevin stocked shelves. Scott was onsite to train us today!

When we weren't stocking, we ran into Brian who showed us a cockatiel that was bobbing his head up and down, much to our delight! Thomas heard someone call his name, and when he looked around he saw Mrs. Middleton, who was one of his former teachers from Toano Middle School! We also enjoyed seeing Henry and Lucky, two black kittens who are looking for their "furever" home!

Scott and PSP have all the info you need to work with the New Kent Humane Society and bring the kittens home! Thanks for working with us today, Scott, and we wish for Henry and Lucky to find a furever home very soon!

Meanwhile, our center group prepared several cards that we will need for a couple of upcoming special occasions.

This group also made a lot of "leaf dudes" (colorful leaves with googly eyes and arms) to put on our entrance wall tree. The tree was started on Wednesday by volunteer Allison, who cut and rolled pieces of brown grocery bags to make the trunk and branches. We finished adding the rest of the branches yesterday. The leaf dudes are the start of a few different fun things we'll put on the tree during the fall season.

Thank you, Bryan, for keeping the feeders filled for the birds!

We had not seen Christina in a couple of months due to everyone's busy schedules, but we were thrilled to touch base with her today. She was happy to see us, too. We brainstormed familiar nursery rhymes, and then went on a scavenger hunt to find items in the galleries that we could associate with the nursery rhymes. It was fun finding them!

For some of the nursery rhymes we knew, Christina read earlier versions that were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were recognizable, but a little different from the ones we know. She gave us a sheet of paper that highlighted several of them, and after we added some color, she showed us how to fold and cut it to make it into a mini-booklet!

Thank you for a joyful way to end our week, Christina! We had no idea nursery rhymes, which we all remember from our childhoods, could be brought to mind by finding objects in the museums. What a fun way to look at things!

Next thing we knew, our week was finished! We tidied up the room, waited for our rides, and left to begin the weekend! As usual, we'll be back on Tuesday and here are our plans:

Tuesday: We are planning to visit the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center today. Please bring your National Parks Access Pass if you have one. If you don't have one, you may bring ID and we can get one for you. (We will collect and manage the IDs.) We'll check out the exhibits in the visitor center and take a battlefield walk, then enjoy our lunch at the picnic area. Please bring a bagged lunch.

Wednesday: We will work on flowers for CSL today, but no visit to GCOC because it's Therapy Dog Wednesday! Our theme will be careers. We'll read books and try to solve career riddles. We are also celebrating our friendship with Emma today as she prepares to leave our program. Her family is treating us to a Pizza Party for lunch. We'll do some of Emma's favorite activities, too!

Thursday: Lots of brain work in the plans for today! We'll have a history lesson to prepare us for tomorrow's visit to Endview and we'll also make up a lesson on animal friendships with Mystery Doug that we missed last week. We will have time for card games too, and we'll add a new Disney trivia one that Dev brought us from his trip to Disney World! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is serving Domino's Pizza, Chef Salad, or Meatball Sub.

Friday: It's going to be a full and busy, but fun day. Some of us will do shifts at Tidal Wave Car Wash this morning for an Arc fundraiser, and others will work at Eaton. EVERYONE, please wear Arc shirts so if you work a car wash shift you will be prepared. No EATON shirts today. We'll all gather back at AFCC for lunch and then we're going to Endview for a special events tour. We're squeezing it in because we were specifically invited for this event after our group was referred by Anne at the Virginia War Museum (we went a while back) who noticed how much we enjoyed history! Please bring your lunch as there is no school today! Thanks!

FAMILIES:

🏌🏌🏌Please try to join us at the Williamsburg Moose Lodge on Wednesday, September 17 at 6:30. We'll meet Moose Patti to receive the proceeds from the WOTM 10th Annual Charity Golf Tournament. This is always a fun and quick event but it's so very important that we show our appreciation! The address is 5429 Richmond Road near the intersection of Richmond and Airport Roads. The lodge is behind Carolina Furniture. Hope to see you there! 🏌🏌🏌

Thank you, Moose Patti, and WOTM, for another super successful FUNdraiser for The Arc of GW and The Arc of Abilities!

EVERYONE:

Tidal Wave Auto Spa's annual charity day is next Friday, September 19 and The Arc of Greater Williamsburg is their charity day partner. 50% of the proceeds from every car wash sold will be donated to support The Arc's mission. Some of our Arc of Abilities members will be there between 8:30-12:00 to work the crowd! To quote our Devin, "Be there, or be square!" Thank you in advance!!