What began as a very rainy week, ended on a sunny note, thank goodness! We rescheduled Tuesday's trip to Yorktown Battlefield to Thursday, where it was still wet, but we had a good time anyway. Our therapy dog friends visited on Wednesday morning, and in the afternoon, we celebrated our friendship with Emma, who is leaving our program. By Friday, we were "all over the place" as some did Eaton work, some represented the Arc at a fundraiser, and some did both! Oh, we also managed a trip to Endview on Friday afternoon for a really cool experience. Check out our rainy to sunny week!
Tuesday
Our plans to visit the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center got washed away when we realized by midmorning that the rain was not letting up, but getting heavier. We decided to try for a visit on Thursday, and spent the day on some odds and ends instead.
We fit in more movement than usual, which was good because during our "sit down" time on this rainy morning it was hard to stay awake while learning about history stuff! LOL! During our dance warm up, we turned on the disco ball. That's always fun on "dark" mornings!
Before lunch, we found a fun GoNoodle indoor recess video that was Nickelodeon themed, including a SpongeBob SquarePants segment that Xavier really liked!
Do we look like a bunch of SpongeBobs?!
September 16 is Mayflower Day, marking the date the Pilgrims departed from Plymouth, England heading to the New World in 1620. Since we had time, we had a lesson comparing the Plymouth Colony to the already established Jamestown Colony (1607). We learned that the Jamestown settlers came looking for economic success, while the Pilgrims came for religious freedom. We also learned that the Pilgrims were originally planning to land in Virginia, but storms and approaching winter weather threw them off course!
The morning seemed realllly long since we weren't on an outing, so we cut the history lesson and had lunch a few minutes earlier than usual! Those gathered at this table enjoyed watching Scooby Doo on Liz's laptop!
Christina gave us some puzzles that she picked up while bargain hunting. Thanks for thinking of us, Christina! Today, Xavier started working on the 150 piece Shrek one. It challenged him so he didn't finish, but we'll see if he can get it done tomorrow!
Devin joined Drew to listen to a few tunes on Drew's iPad during Choice Time.
After Choice Time we listened to our read aloud, The Wild Robot Protects. We hadn't read in a while since so many friends were absent a couple of weeks ago and last week. We really need to finish it soon so we can start another book! 😃
Our last activity today was getting ready for tomorrow's celebration of Emma's time with us. We got farewell cards and a few decorations ready so we can make the room look special for her!
We want to share this collage of photos from last Saturday's re-dedication ceremony for the Rob Till Community Garden. It was a beautiful day to kick off a fresh restart to the garden, and we know Rob, who worked with us when our day program began, would be so happy. Our friends at Grove Christian Outreach Center (GCOC) have taken over stewardship of the garden, which is located behind the school, and have plans to get it going again so they can raise fresh vegetables for their Gathering Place food market. The Gathering Place offers those in the community who are living with food insecurity a place to select food items at no cost. We plan to help raise some of the fresh veggies and also donate some of our fresh herbs to the Gathering Place in the future.
Wednesday
The rain let up a little today, but we still couldn't be outside. It was a wonderful day, nonetheless, as we enjoyed a visit from our therapy dog friends, and had a heartwarming good-bye party for Emma.
Thanks to our early birds who went to shelve books in the library today!
We welcomed a smaller than usual number AoA friends and therapy dog friends today, but that didn't hinder us from a great time...and some unexpected excitement! First, we greeted each other.
Next, we began our reading groups. Michelle and some stuffed pups led one group, since we had 13 of us and only 3 dog handlers. We didn't want our groups to be too big. Thomas, Emma, and Xavier were in Michelle's first group!
Kent's first group consisted of Devin, Annmarie, and Gail. Leo and Tavish were good listeners! Our theme today was careers and Kent was helping Annmarie read a book about farmers. He also shared with us that he had career stops that included teaching music, working in educational administration, and being an "entertainer" at Shields Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg! 🎵🎵
Drew, Liz, and Laura read with Caroline, Pip, and Indy. They learned that one of Caroline's most important careers was homeschooling her 3 kids...even through high school! WOW!
It was exciting to learn that Carol, Darby's mom, went into the computer science field back a "few" years ago...when it wasn't a popular field for women. Kevin, Bryan, and Alexis were reading with a trailblazer today!
Speaking of Carol (Darby's mom), she is also the co-chair of Williamsburg's Night to Shine committee. Many of our friends attended Night to Shine this past February, and are looking forward to next February's event. Carol brought this "save the date" info for us...it will be on February 13 in 2026! Carol also said preregistration will likely take place soon, like October 1st, so keep an eye on your inbox! We'll keep you posted, too. Carol and her team did a FANTASTIC job this year, and we know it will be another wonderful event in 2026!
Many thanks to our therapy dogs and handlers for joining us today for reading and career chatting! We always enjoy our time with you! 🐶🐕🐶🐕
Thanks also to Nan and Carol who got the CSL flower arrangements finished while we spent time with the therapy dogs!
While we're thanking others, let's give Liz and Drew a shoutout for their friendly faces as they delivered the flowers to CSL this afternoon!!
Our friend Emma will be leaving Arc of Abilities after this week. She's pursuing new opportunities and we will miss her sweet and caring self. We spent the rest of today having a farewell celebration for her. Since Emma loves drawing and creating characters, we thought it would be fun to do a creative drawing activity. Everyone got a sheet of random squiggles which they were encouraged to "complete" by adding on to the squiggles.
Emma really enjoyed sitting with those who wanted to share, and we were proud of everyone's imaginative creations!
Friday is Emma's last day, but since her dad, Bob, is off on Wednesdays, we had a pizza luncheon today. We were thrilled when he treated us to stuffed crust pizza! It was delicious! 😋🍕😋🍕😋
Thank you, Bob, for treating us to lunch today and for spending time with us as we celebrated our friendship with Emma. While her time with us was relatively short (1 1/2 years), our memories with her will last forever. We are happy to hear she will continue to attend Arc events, and we look forward to seeing her at them!
Emma wrote a beautiful poem as a gift for Lisa and Carol, who were moved by her kind and heartfelt words. You could have heard a pin drop as she read it, and everyone felt the love she put into it. Thank you, Emma, from Lisa and Carol, for honoring us with this touching tribute. We will treasure this always. 💗💗💗 We hope you like the photo collage we put together for you, too.
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Several of Emma's friends shared sweet comments about their memories and friendship, and then we lightened things up with a corn hole game, which is another activity Emma really likes. We recruited Bob to play on Emma's team since they needed another player to even the sides. He was such a good sport, and a good player! In fact, he was almost as good as Emma, who sank a 2 pointer right into the hole on her first turn!
Unfortunately, Emma and Bob and the rest of their team came in second today, as the other team came in first! But as we like to say, we were all winners because it was so much fun! Thanks again, Bob, for hanging out with us today and treating us to the yummy stuffed crust pizza! What a treat!
Wednesday Evening
What a thrill it was to join Moose Patti and the Women of the Moose (WOTM) at the Lodge tonight as they presented The Arc with the proceeds from the 10th Annual Charity Golf Tournament! Patti had hinted that it would be more than last year, and that she was so excited, but we had no idea it would be nearly double last year's proceeds!
Thank you, Patti and WOTM. We are blessed by your support. Thanks also to Bryan, Alexis, Drew, Liz, (and their families) for joining us at the presentation. They are the faces of The Arc, and we're so proud of their representation!!!
Thursday
It was still a little wet outside, but it wasn't raining, so we headed to Yorktown this morning for a visit to the Battlefield Visitor Center.
As soon as we arrived, we asked if we could get National Park Access Passes for those who didn't have one, and the park ranger was happy to oblige. We didn't get a photo with her, but here is a pic of some of the passes. The ones with the eagle are the passes we got today. These will come in handy as we visit this battlefield site as well as Historic Jamestowne.
As we made our way around the visitor center, we found many of our guys reading the history and pointing out things of interest. We love to see them being curious, asking questions, and helping each other understand better!
Before leaving the visitor center, we noticed there was a student art show on display. The works by York County students celebrated both historic and modern day Yorktown.
After our history lesson, we went to one of our favorite lunch spots, the shelter near the York River. It was a little bit breezy, but we didn't mind. At least it wasn't raining!
We thought about taking a walk in Yorktown, or maybe waiting for a trolley ride. But then we spotted the Coleman Bridge, and when Lisa and Carol remembered there are no tolls on it now, we decided to take a little ride over to Gloucester!
Lisa Googled a couple of parks for us to check out. The first one was very small with only 2 parking spots, so we went a little further up Rt. 17 to Woodville Park, where we enjoyed checking out the Free Little Library and the Gloucester Master Gardeners' area. We also took a stroll around a small pond. It was a nice park, and we enjoyed everything about it except it doesn't have "regular" bathrooms, if you know what we mean! All in all, we had a good day!
Friday
Wow! We packed a lot into today, and rocked it! Eaton work, Tidal Wave Auto Spa for a fundraiser, and a visit to the VA250 Mobile Museum at Endview kept us on our toes with all the logistics. Here's how we did it!
Eaton had a last minute change and needed us to "work from home" again, so that enabled us to switch up our Eaton and car wash teams more than we had planned, and more were able to work at Tidal Wave. Some of us will be in photos from both places...it was like magic!
Xavier and Kevin sorted mixed parts.
Alexis applied gaskets to what we call "rectangle" parts.
By mid-morning, Lisa had left to take a second group to the car wash, and Laura, Emma, Michelle, and Annmarie helped load all the Eaton parts we had onto the van.
Even though we weren't working onsite, Bernie, Kim, and Ethan welcomed us to bring our completed work to the warehouse. Eaton is doing a physical inventory next week. By this point in the morning, Liz, Drew, and Thomas had completed a car wash shift and had joined up with Carol and the Eaton crew. Lisa was back on the road taking the 3rd group to Tidal Wave!
Today was Tidal Wave Auto Spa's Annual Charity Day, and The Arc of Greater Williamsburg is the Charity Day Partner for the Williamsburg location, earning proceeds from each car wash sold. Arc of Abilities members were proud to represent the Arc. They spent all morning greeting customers, spreading the good news about The Arc and what we do, and politely asking for additional donations. They charmed the customers, and donations were generous! GREAT JOB ARC OF ABILITIES!!!
Our early bird crew arrived (via parents dropping them off) at 8:30 and got the ball rolling with bright smiles! Thank you, Drew, Liz, Thomas, and our honorary AoA member, Coco, whose mom Caroline is The Arc's Communications and Development Coordinator.
Throughout the morning, others, including Kevin, Gail, Bryan, Michelle, Kate, Alexis, Devin, and Emma also helped. It was fun to watch their personalities shine as they interacted with customers!
The first customer Kevin and Gail met turned out to be a friend of Kevin's family!
Our guys enjoyed working the crowd with The Arc's Programs and Vocational Training Assistant, Kasey. She coached them on being persuasive, yet professional!
Our guys are such good team players!
We were thrilled to be working when Laura's family stopped by with 2 vehicles to wash! Here, mom Lisa and Laura's sweet nieces Eloise and Olivia posed with some of us. They had a school holiday today!
Hi from Laura's dad, Tom, and her aunt, Heidi! Thanks for coming today!
Big thanks to Liz's dad, our friend, and Arc board member Greg for helping with the first shift. He is always fun to hang out with, and keeps us laughing with his quick wit!
Cheers to our Tidal Wave Team...and also to those who stayed with Carol and Nan today to not only finish Eaton work, but to also begin getting decorations ready for a party we're having next week. We are remiss in not getting additional photos of Laura, Annmarie, and Xavier...but trust us, they were making contributions that we will be very grateful for next week. 💙💚💛
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Any other day, we would have had lunch, Choice Time, and maybe a game of corn hole to end the day after such a busy morning. But not today! We headed to see the VA250 Mobile Museum Experience after lunch! This "museum on wheels" is traveling throughout Virginia to bring the story of Virginia's role in our American Revolution to the masses in the lead up to America's 250th anniversary next year. This weekend it will be at Endview Plantation for an event called "The Peoples Revolution." Get more info by clicking here:
Upon our arrival shortly before 1:30, we were greeted by Gabrielle Pressley, who is the Museum Education Coordinator for the City of Newport News - Historic Services. She sent us an invitation to attend this preview of the weekend's event after hearing from another museum colleague that "The Arc's day program is a great group and would be a good one to invite!" There were limited invitations for tours this afternoon, so we feel pretty humbled to be included!
Before we entered, we were each given a souvenir booklet.
Even though the museum is mobile, and it is packed up and moved frequently, there were many hands-on and interactive displays, including a visit with Patrick Henry in holographic form!
Some of the displays we found most interesting included ones about the role women played in the Revolution, an interactive display showing the various uniforms worn by soldiers from all sides, and, at the end, some photos that tell the story of how our country continued to evolve after the war.
Another guide, Zachary, answered lots of questions and then invited us to take the Citizenship Test before we left! Challenge accepted!
There were questions on many topics, including the structure of our government, presidents, the flag, and America's geography. We scored 9/10, only missing the one that asked how many amendments there are in the Constitution. (FYI - 27!) Zachary said we did better than most visitors! 👏👏👏
We thoroughly enjoyed our first ever visit to a mobile museum! The VA250 Mobile Museum Experience is great. We are so glad we were able to squeeze it in this afternoon. It was a great brain workout, and a great way to end a stellar week!
Today was Emma's official last day with us. We didn't enjoy saying goodbye to her all that much, but we hope to keep in touch and to see her at other Arc events! Best wishes, Emma!
We'll be back on Tuesday for another busy week. Here are our plans:
Tuesday: It's back to the garden for a lesson with the MGs, as we welcome the first full day of fall! Today we will learn the differences between herbs and spices, and also do more planting. The weather forecast looks good for a day outside, so bring a bagged lunch and we'll plan to enjoy Freedom Park before returning to the center.
Wednesday: We'll do our service projects in the morning, so please wear Arc shirts today. After that, Marisol and the corgis are stopping by for another visit! After lunch we will observe National Punctuation Day as we work on special cards for special people (we know so many). We'll also head outside for a kickball game in the big field, which some of you have been requesting! Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is serving Asian Chicken w/ Rice and Veggies or Flatbread Sandwich. If you've heard from Carol that your account funds are running low, be sure to bring a check. 😉
Thursday: This morning we will prepare to welcome special guests, Randy and Sally, for lunch. They are our former member Nancy's brother and sister-in-law, who have remained in touch through friendship and treat-giving with us even after Nancy relocated to Kentucky. It's our turn to treat them! We'll have pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, and fruity Jell-O for lunch. In the afternoon, we'll celebrate One-Hit Wonder Day by combining music with brain work and games.
Friday: Today is a PSP work day, so please wear Pet Supplies Plus shirts. The group that stays at the center will prepare an apple treat for this afternoon since we're going to celebrate one of our favorite days, Johnny Appleseed Day! We'll have a Mystery Science lesson about the color differences in apples, and of course, we'll watch the classic Disney film about Johnny Appleseed. Lunch on your own. JRES Cafeteria is available for Corn Dog Nuggets or "Manager's Choice." Yum!
REMINDERS!!!
Have a Wonderful Weekend,
Lisa, Carol, Nan, and the AoA Gang
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