This week was a productive and fun week! I led my first two outreach events on Wednesday and Friday and also visited OSU Star House on Thursday.

The first outreach visit I led was having a booth at a Resource Fair hosted by Homeport Columbus at Framingham Village. At Homeport their mission is to develop stable and affordable communities throughout central Ohio. Homeport provides economic literacy outreach and connects individuals to community organizations and financial groups committed to helping people finance homes. Homeport focuses on neighborhood revitalization, such as renovating and rebuilding homes, and community development, such as increasing financial literacy. Our booth was with other vendors that provided financial advice to community individuals. We played games with the kids at the event and handed out about 50 goodie bags with toothbrushes, toothpaste, a 2 minute brushing timer, and information about our clinic. We also talked to several parents about our clinic services.

Me, Judah, and Natisha at the oral health education activity table!

OSU Star House is an amazing organization that provides food, a place to drop-in, and other resources for homeless youth in central Ohio. Their mission is “Integrating research and community service, Star House provides youth experiencing homelessness with a safe respite from the streets and connects them to a chance for a productive life.” We brought our usual outreach games and activities and the youth really liked talking with us about the games and about oral health in general. It was a really meaningful experience for me personally to connect with the youth and hear their stories. We even tried a new game where each person took a latex glove and covered it in chocolate frosting. Next, they would try to brush off the chocolate frosting while keeping his or her fingers together. Then, some chocolate would be seen, still stuck between the fingers, so they would have to floss out the rest of the chocolate. The activity showed the importance of flossing your teeth, even with excellent brushing technique!

I also had a lot of fun at the outreach visit to Westerville Area Resource Ministries (WARM) at Ridgewood Park in Westerville today. WARM provided over 100 free lunches, as well as bags of food for the weekend, for families in Westerville. They also set up a carnival event, with two bounce houses, carnival games, and prizes! I met one of our new outreach volunteers, Megan, who will be helping out with many outreach events this summer! We had fun playing our activities with the kids!

The bounce houses and some carnival games at the WARM Ridgewood event!

Our table at the WARM Ridgewood Event!

Overall, this was a fantastic week! Leading these two events was a great experience in keeping organized and leadership, but fortunately everything went smoothly and it was a ton of fun! I’m looking forward to a great week next week!