This week is our last week going into summer camps and engaging kids in our Kindness Corps program.

This week’s lesson was about our unhoused and hungry neighbors here in Columbus. The kids decorated snack bags and filled them with non-perishable snacks for food pantries around Columbus. The bags were decorated with fun sayings like “made with love” and “you shine bright” and drawn on by the kids. We also showed a video from last week of us giving our donations to Nationwide Children’s as well as a video we took in one of the food pantries we donate to show them who they will be donating to next.

At the end of each camp this week, we gave the kids surveys to fill out. This was to see what they learned and to gather data on Kindness Corps, as well as what changes need to be made or what we be improved upon in the program. We’ve also been inputting this data this week and it’s been interesting to see what kids have to say about our programs. I feel that the surveys are beneficial for us and the kids so that we can see what the program has done for the kids, as well as the kids can reflect on what they have learned throughout their time with us.

On Monday, I co-worked with our executive director in the afternoon. We talked about the book I read in these last few weeks, and I had many questions for her about the book and how the practices mentioned in the book were implemented into Seeds of Caring and the work we do. We had great conversations on the future of Seeds of Caring! We also discussed my presentation to The Columbus Foundation next week, where she will also be in attendance. She gave me some feedback on what I should include, and how I can apply what I have learned during my time into the presentation as well.

I have been putting together my photos for my Pecha Kucha presentation, as well as taking some more photos during my time at camp this week. It has been a bit difficult to take photos since I work mostly with kids and we can’t take photos of them, but myself and my coworkers have gotten very good at strategically taking photos where the kids are turned around or no faces/things to identify the children are in the photos! (see below)

I’m a bit nervous going into next week, concerning the presentation. I’ve gained more confidence this summer speaking to groups, and since kids truly are the hardest audience, I feel that I can overcome my nervousness and focus on having fun and celebrating my summer & the other fellows’ summers as well!