This past weekend, CCA-West had a cookout for new and returning students to celebrate our move and welcome the students. Volunteers and CCA staff members have been working to paint and refurbish all the classrooms we will be using next year and although there is still a little ways to go, the building made a miraculous transformation just in time for families to arrive. When I left work on Friday evening, the halls were still filled with paint cans and brushes, tables, chairs and filing cabinets, the gym was empty and no classrooms were set up. On Saturday afternoon, however to my surprise the school was spotless and looked great! The halls were emptied and cleaned, the gym had tables and chairs set up in it and a “mock” classroom was created for families and students to see.

The “mock” 6th grade classroom

                We had a great turnout with both new and returning families coming out to see the school, eat some hot dogs and mingle with teachers and fellow classmates. Students were very excited to see where they would be going to school. One student even showed up in his full uniform! Almost all of my interaction with families is during the enrollment process for new students, so it was great to see the enthusiasm returning students have for CCA and their family’s commitment to their child’s education. If the cookout is any indicator of the turnout we will have on the first day of school I think it’s safe to say it will be great!   

Here’s a look into the office work that I’ve been doing this Summer in addition to playing with a group of amazing kids every day.

One of my main objectives this summer has been scheduling special guests.  The exciting part of that job is visiting the sites on those days and getting to see the kids interact with a police dog or a doctor or the fire department.  The next two weeks include visits from a soccer trainer, an optometrist group, The Columbus Zoo, The Columbus Blue Jackets and a fruit sculptor.  Behind the scenes is, admittedly, a little less exciting.  Lots of phone calls, lots of voicemails, lots of emails.  Currently, the contact information for potential special guests is a little scattered.  By the end of the Summer one of my main office-related objectives is to finish a spreadsheet – currently in progress – that will make next year’s special guest coordinator’s job less stressful.  All of the usual information – name, email, phone number – but also a much more detailed description of what they do with their visits – is it a craft/activity/professional visit, have they been to our camp before, did the kids enjoy their visit.  When the entirety of the program lasts only nine weeks, there isn’t any time to waste, so knowing all of this will (hopefully) be very helpful in the future.

It’s a beautiful space…and I couldn’t resist showing off a bit more of the kids’ artwork. These pieces were donated to SON Ministries by the campers.

I’ve also spent time developing planning sheets for each of our camp sites.  Each week I meet with the site leaders and assistant site leaders and we plan out the activities and guests for the week ahead.  Each site is different, so the planning process needed a good bit of tweaking at the beginning of the Summer.  Now, everything runs smoothly.  My hope is to leave behind enough documentation that next Summer will be able to start where this one ends in terms of planning.

I’ve also been working on flyers for Family and Friends Night at two of our larger sites.  Last week the first FFN went GREAT and I’m looking forward to Round 2 this Wednesday.  This week’s event will include a talent show, soccer match, halftime dance performance, dodgeball tournament, bake sale/lemonade stand and art gallery.  All starring the kids, of course.  Today’s preparations for the big event included dance practice, making jerseys for soccer and dodgeball, icing cupcakes and making signs for the bake sale.  It’s a pretty big deal and I am so excited to be a part of it.

There will certainly be pictures and videos to follow, so stay tuned.

     The field trips just keep rolling in at the OEC! This past week, I was lucky enough to travel to Cleveland and Athens. In Cleveland, I got the full corporate meeting experience, as my boss and I met with executives from the Cleveland 2030 District. It was a great learning experience for me, as I got to see how the OEC operates in a more corporate setting, and I got to learn all about what the 2030 District is doing to encourage energy efficiency in downtown Cleveland. We also had fun photographing a giant wind turbine later in the day, a task that probably amused cars driving past two professionally-dressed people crouching in the grass with a camera in pursuit of that artsy angle. Hungry from our quest for clean energy, our field trip ended with delicious grilled cheese from Melt.

     My second field trip was equally as fun, if a bit more soggy. Last Saturday was the Boogie on the Bricks festival in Athens, although you wouldn’t have known it when I arrived there in the afternoon. Three solid hours of torrential rain had preceded my arrival, and when I met up with the head organizer from the Environmental Law & Policy Center and the other volunteer they were shivering under their flimsy plastic tent. Fortunately, the day cleared up from that point on, and we took turns drying off in the limited sun. More importantly, the crowd picked back up and we were able to talk with lots of colorful characters about Senate Bill 221 and the fight for clean energy regulations in Ohio. I even got to say hi to a few friends from my days as an undergrad (which were three months ago, lest my nostalgic tone deceive you)! While the early rain could have derailed our ability to educate and talk with the festival-goers, we were luckily able to make up for lost time once things picked up around dusk.

     Apart from being fun, these two field trips taught me valuable lessons about the OEC and similar organizations. First, they showed me just how much work goes into fighting the green fight – and how important help from the public and other organizations/businesses truly is. Secondly, they gave me an appreciation for the diversity of tactics the OEC/ELPC employ – a corporate boardroom is far from the cobbled streets of Athens, after all!

This week was a great week with the kids at ETSS summer camp. I was able to get the kids involved with cooking. The first dish they made was hummus! An easy Middle Eastern dish, the kids had fun mashing up chickpeas and squeezing the lemons. We also added some parsley and roasted garlic for more added flavor. Side story- The weekend before, I roasted 4 garlic in my apartment to prepare for the hummus lesson…my apartment smelled like garlic for the next few days!

The kids dipped carrots and pita bread into their delicious, homemade hummus. Not only did they enjoy making the hummus, they really enjoyed eating the hummus! It was great to see all of the kids try the hummus and learn about a dish from a different culture.

That same week, they also got a small taste of Mexico, when they made some salsa! Carefully, the all of the kids cut up tomatoes and red onions and sprinkled on some cilantro leaves on their salsa mixture. I added a little bit of cumin and salt for flavor, and the kids tried their homemade salsa with some tortilla chips. Although, tortilla chips are “junk food”, I let the kids have seconds as long as they were dipping the chips in the salsa. It was definitely a great way for the kids to learn about a new dish as well as some valuable cooking skills! Salsa is a great way for kids who aren’t a fan of tomatoes to try them again!

The cooking lessons aren’t over yet! Next week, the kids will be making pasta salad! Only 2 more weeks of camp! 

The last few weeks have been busy but exciting at ETSS summer camp. The kids have been able to try a variety of foods in my nutrition class. They were very excited for last week though, because they knew they would be trying some bananas and blueberry “Ice Cream”! I put the quotation marks on Ice Cream, only because it really isn’t ice cream. No dairy or sugar involved in this delicious frozen treat-just frozen bananas and blueberries blended to perfection! Last weekend I had bags full of cut up bananas and  blueberries in my freezer. With my small food processor, I spent hours trying to blend the two fruits to make the frozen treat. In the end, the “ice cream” was made and it was a hit at camp! Most of the kids really enjoyed tasting it and was surprised when they found out that I didn’t add any sugar! (Sometimes I like to add walnuts and drizzle a little bit of honey!) I hope the kids are able to freeze up different fruits and make their own “Ice Cream” creations!

At the end of camp at the East site, one of the students stayed in class with me until the other kids left to play outside. She then took her spoon out and began to eat the left over “Ice Cream” I had in my bowl asking me, “Can I eat the rest of this? It’s so yummy!” It was already too late for me to say no, since she had already taken a bite, so I let her finish the bowl. I’m really glad some of the kids LOVED this dessert! It’s a great alternative to ice cream, and you don’t have to feel guilty if you eat it every day!

This week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a luncheon honoring Chuck Gehring, President and CEO of LifeCare Alliance. After mingling and doing a bit of networking with the other attendees, we finally sat down to eat and listen in on a Q&A session with Chuck. One of the main points of his business philosophy is that the future of business is a blending of non-profit and for-profit models, regardless of which categorization your organization actually falls under. In order to attract and appeal to recent college graduates of the Millennial generation, a for-profit really has to offer value in the form of having the ability to give back to the community. In fact, a survey sent out to graduating seniors at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State revealed that for young people, the single most important factor when job seeking is being able to impact the community on company time. I had to take this survey myself a couple of months ago, and I know that I listed that as one of my top priorities as well. A company that offers its employees volunteer opportunities, in which they can get out into the community and really make a difference for a cause that they personally are passionate about, will be more appealing to young professionals. It is a great way of demonstrating corporate social responsibility as well as attracting top talent from the best universities.  

At the same time, as competition for various sources of funding increases, non-profit organizations will have to start adopting for-profit business models in order to be sustainable. Social enterprise, which basically just means having revenue-generating branches of a non-profit organization, is being discussed more and more in the literature as a way of getting non-profits to be more financially independent. It’s an exciting time to be working at Alvis House, as the expansion of social enterprise opportunities for our clients is in the planning stage. Our first venture into the social enterprise arena began in 2011, when we started a cleaning service and employed DD clients to clean two different Alvis House facilities each day. It is a great way for our clients to get job training and experience, earn wages, and get involved in other areas of Alvis House. And the guys do a great job of making sure everything at the administrative office is neat and tidy! We are hoping to expand this service to include six additional crews made up of both DD and corrections clients, and eventually develop a laundry business to serve Alvis House facilities as well as local businesses.

I want to take the time to write about all of the behind the scenes office work that I’ve been involved with and all of the great people that I work with that aren’t under the age of 14, but there is just so much that happens at this camp on a weekly basis that I’ll have to save that for another post.  Here’s what’s happened the last two weeks at HCC (Hilliard Church of Christ) and RELC (Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church).

HCC

Taco Bell Jr. was running full steam today.  There were a few minor hiccups for the kids (we ran out of corn tortillas and tortilla chips!), but they took it in stride and “pushed theTakis” instead.  Everything turned out great and the 38 guests at the restaurant didn’t notice a thing.  In other TBJr. news, the staff t-shirts have arrived!  Each employee wore a matching white t-shirt with the Taco Bell Jr. and SON Ministries name and logos (as seen in the bottom right of the picture above).  Next week the kids are tie-dying their shirts to make them even more special.  We’ve also had a visit from KidSMILES dental group and a “book raid” that ended with multiple books  going home with any kid that wanted them.

RELC

This week has felt a little bit like game time all the time.  In the best possible way.  Some of the preparation for our activities at RELC is as much fun for the staff as the actual games are for the kids.  If you don’t know what I mean, try blowing up 100+ balloons in a small room filled with the kind of people that would spend their summers playing with children.  Or “testing” whether or not our homemade ice cream would work.  It did and it was delicious.  This preparation, while entertaining and delicious for the staff, served a purpose in terms of our programming, too.  Our balloons made their way into a real life Mario Kart game, our ice cream was a huge hit and our “Minute-to-win-it” games were a smashing, frenzied success.

Again, the office work post will be here shortly, as promised.  But can you blame me for writing about all of these amazing things instead?

So why not share a few with you from CELC’s earlier years? I have spent this week scanning photos. Scanning leaves moments of free time as you wait for the photo to scan, so I spent such moments pondering the ways in which, sixty years later, play is still play. Some of the oldest photos of children are from 1957, and they are playing in water, dressing up, and enjoying the sandbox, just like today’s children. Yes, the field of early childhood education has made incredible strides in understanding why this play is so important and has worked to instill educational components into much of what they do, but play is still crucial to all of this learning. Children learn through play. Through these pictures, CELC can capture and illustrate their rich history of providing quality early learning opportunities for children.

Play Is Still Play and Dress Up Is Still Dress Up . . .

Somehow, in the hustle and bustle that is the Hilliard Free Lunch Summer Camp for Kids and this blog that accompanies it, I have yet to talk about one of our most exciting events.  It truly is a travesty to have gone this long without mention of it, and for that I apologize. In reality, each week I could talk about just this aspect of the summer lunch program and never run out of things to say.  So, without further ado, let me introduce you to

Taco Bell Jr.

Every Friday, the kids at one of our camp sites invite members of the site staff, our administration and the larger Hilliard community to lunch.  Yes, we serve lunch every day.  That’s what we’re all about.  But this is different.

Taco Bell Jr. is a child founded and operated restaurant within the Hilliard Free Summer Lunch Camp for Kids.  Everything is made by the kids.  Place settings, decorations, centerpieces, FOOD.  Everything.

The menu is ever expanding.  The kids have made and served chicken fajitas, beef tacos, beans, rice, torta, homemade salsa, homemade guacamole and flan.  They’d give any restaurant chain a run for their money.  

It’s truly a sight to see.  There are weekly planning meetings lead by a “manager” (a sixth grader with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry who has spent years climbing the corporate ladder) and every position is filled by the campers.  We have hosts and hostesses, waiters and waitresses, staff behind the counter, chefs and two managers.

During opening week for the restaurant I was fortunate enough to be served by our kids (seating is limited and reservations are preferred.  I was lucky to get in).  So much stood out in the form of sights and sounds and experiences that it’s hard to write about them all.  Imagine each of these coming from a 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th grader:

“Hi, welcome to Taco Bell Jr.  How many will be in your party today?”

“How are you enjoying your meal, sir?”

“I need a beef taco, no rice, no beans at Table 3.”

“Have you tried any of our homemade guacamole?  Let me go and get you some, on the house.”

Sure, the whole operation is “on the house” – Taco Bell Jr. accepts donations but charges nothing for their services – but hearing one of our kids say that still made me smile.

Each week I get to witness this incredible event and it never stops being amazing.

P.s. If you’re interested, TBJr is open on Fridays from 11:30am to 12:30pm through August 9th.  RSVP to kemch@son-ministries.org to make a reservation.

Week 7 of my fellowship has been a very busy one!

Learning how to save lives, thanks to this doll appropriately named “Baby”

I began the week with a CPR/AED certification course given by the American Safety & Health Institute. Throughout the training, I learned the proper techniques for administrating CPR to infants, children, and adults, how to use an automated external defibulator (AED), and the different methods of helping someone if he/she is choking.

The next day, LifeCare hosted a Vacation Bible School from Scioto Ridge. The kids spent the afternoon volunteering at our Harmon Avenue location. They helped staff members wash Meals-On-Wheels delivery vans, collect and clean the MOW delivery bags, process pet food, distribute fans, and clean the kitchen. The kids were a huge help, and we were so thankful to have them!

Eagerly awaiting their assignments

Distributing fans to those in need

Helping out the Meals-On-Wheels staff. The kids couldn’t get enough of these hair
nets!

If you look carefully, you can see that each of the kids has a splash of green in their hair. At this VBS, the kids’ hair is sprayed a different color every day! (It was wash-out dye to keep the parents happy.) As I was walking a group of our young volunteers to their station, I shared with them that my second-grade teacher once dyed her hair green after my class collectively read 1,000 books that school year. The girls laughed, but the boys appeared less than impressed. I guess I’ll need to come up with some better talking points for next time I find myself surrounded by 50+ 5^th graders!

Putting together the new Animeals booklets

Things are moving right along with my Animeals project. My desk is now covered with 24 brand new route booklets, color-coordinated by direction. Each contains updated information and a delivery packet made for volunteers to grab and go. We’ve found that quite a few booklets have gone missing in the past, and we are hoping that this new system helps combat this problem. I can’t wait to get these materials into the hands of our volunteers!