This February our staff and members made the most of the snowy and cold vacation week by celebrating with lots of fun socially distanced activities and plenty of movement both in and outdoors. They spent some time away from the Club with outdoor field trips and also participated in some community building themed days. Here’s what everyone was up to last week.
Each of our Hubs had the opportunity to participate in an outdoor hiking exploration trip. Yes, it was a snowy and cold week, but after months of being cooped up indoors, our members and staff were ready to embrace the outdoors together. Some Hubs went hiking at the Blue Hills Reservation with our pals from Elevate Youth, while others visited the Hale Reservation where they learned how to boil snow and then used the water for tea. There was also some snowmazing fun happening right in our own backyard. Hub members took to the open space and hills behind our building for some sledding, snow angels and even a snowball fight or two.
We also opened up the pool for some Hub pool parties, complete with pool noodles, floats and other water toys, along with games, laughter and some hype jams. Hub members also got to spend some time in the gym playing basketball, dodgeball and soccer to name a few.
What would vacation week be like without some healthy competition among our Hubs?! Each floor participated in a Minute to Win It style challenge against the other Hub on their floor. It was a race against time and each other to complete various activities in under a minute. One challenge had Hub members flipping cups and then using the cup to play a game of tic-tac-toe against the other Hub.
Some of our members also experimented with some new creative outlets and artistic styles by creating blind contour drawings and raised salt paintings. Blind contour drawing is a method in which you draw the contours of a subject without looking at the paper. Along with not looking at the paper as you draw, the artist is also not allowed to lift their pencil up off the paper once they have begun drawing. For the salt paintings our young artists started by drawing items on paper with glue. After that they sprinkled salt all over the glue drawing and then added different colored watercolor paint to the salt.
As always, there were plenty of mouthwatering meals and snacks for everyone, including mango, banana and lime dairy-free smoothies, breakfast for lunch with the choice of either French toast with warmed apples on top, or a breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese, and much more.
The entire week was full of excitement, movement and lots of smiling faces. Thank you to our fabulous staff for helping to plan and organize an amazing week with opportunities to partner with different organizations for some fun outdoor excursions and also some super special time together indoors. Lots of careful consideration and teamwork was involved to ensure all of our Hub members had an unforgettable week. We can’t wait to see what the rest of the winter holds, as well as our next vacation week in April. Here’s hoping for warmer weather by then!
