"The Christmas Message is that There is Hope for a Ruined Humanity--Hope of Pardon, Hope of Peace with God, Hope of Glory--Because at the Father's Will Jesus Became Poor, and Was Born in a Stable So That Thirty Years Later He Might Hang on a Cross." ~ JI Packer

The last month was pretty hectic, but fun, and came off surprisingly well!

Update
After the kids came back from Thanksgiving Break, they had 3 more weeks of school and programs before going back on another break for Christmas.  This alone would likely normally have the kids bouncing off the walls for the duration, but for the first two weeks of that time, they were getting out of school an hour early because they had parent teacher conferences.  And we opened up an hour early during that time to let them in.  Instead of coming up with a modified, longer program day schedule, we used that time to have the kids work on Christmas crafts and watch Christmas movies or listen as someone read them Christmas books (i.e. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", etc.).  They also went through an Advent Calendar, reading a verse or two a day that, at the end of the three weeks, told them the Christmas Story.  They put the verses on a small Rosemary bush, shaped like a tree, as ornaments.

Some of the crafts they did included handprint wreaths, Christmas chains, and letters to Santa which, when turned into the red mailbox at Macy's, would count toward Macy's giving $1 donations for each of them to the Make-A-Wish foundation.  Some of our older kids were reluctant to write letters to Santa, but once they heard what it was for, they were all over it.  Didn't even have to read the age-old article, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" to them!  My kids are pretty great!

The Annual Christmas party was a HUGE success!  2 different churches participated in the festivities and there were about a million gifts for our kids to choose from to buy for their families.  And pretty much all of them were donated!  We almost definitely had more volunteers than students.  (I could probably give a more exact number, but I didn't plan that day!  Thanks Emily!!!) Everyone was wonderful, and while it probably looked crazy, all the reports I got back were about how organized it was.

Of course,  I forgot to take pictures, so have some I found on our server!

Merry Christmas!!!

"When You Say a Situation Or a Person is Hopeless, You're Slamming the Door in the Face of God." ~Charles L. Allen

Quick update since the last one (I hope):

Fundraiser Dinner
The fundraiser dinner went pretty well, I thought!  And it was super nice to see so many people who support me there!  The room looked gorgeous, and there was a really cool collaborative piece of art work for everyone attending to participate in creating that will be hung in Pomona Hope somewhere.  I hope it goes in my office!  But the Volunteer Break Room might be better...

I also want to steal the video we showed to add to our volunteer trainings.  It was a pretty good overview of what we do, I thought.

And we got new pens!  I love them, despite them having orange accents.  It actually works on these.  (Let me know if you want a pen, we've got about a million.  Okay, really more like 500, but who's counting?)

It was nice, as a member of the Ministry Group at my church, who has helped put this event on several times now, to not have a ton of work to do to set everything up...  I did help out, but it seemed far less stressful for me this time, and it seems that the past few years the Board has really made sure that they were the ones doing most of the work.  I am so grateful to have such a hands-on Board to work for!  There was still stuff to do last minute (which is good... I don't like having nothing to do), but it didn't feel like it was the end of the world if it wasn't perfect.  Which is strange, because it seems like that's how it should feel once I actually start working for the organization...

The registration process looked very organized.  The food was DELICIOUS (my mom even liked her non-dairy versions of everything!).  The tables were named after major streets in Pomona!  Very cute!  It was all very elegant and well done, and everyone involved deserves chocolate.

And I got to dress like a grown-up!  I'm gonna need more reasons to wear that outfit.

Garden Knowledge Board Game
The Garden Knowledge Board game got tested for the first time this week!  The kids were at snack and we let the older group try it.  They really struggled to answer some of the questions I thought would be easy, but hopefully they will rise to the challenge instead of just giving up.  They did say they liked it, but I'm not sure how much of that is that they didn't want to hurt my feelings.

Champions
Our Champions had a rough week.  Monday there was an incident where several of our students and one high school volunteer were acting very suspicious when some of our incentives for the 2-minute math tests went missing.  That, combined with the fact that almost every single one of our junior high students (even the good ones!) left something out to be picked up by staff, caused me to start the entire group off with one warning as soon as they got there on Tuesday.  I had to give the entire group a lecture about respect the place and losing our trust and I had to ask the high school volunteer to leave and not come back until after Thanksgiving, but I let him know we wanted him there, but we also wanted him to take his role as a leader seriously.   And by the end of the day, I also had to ask his friend (two peas in a pod) to leave and not return until after Thanksgiving (same general speech).  I don't like having to come down so hard on the kids, but some of them have been getting away with stuff for too long already, and they seemingly took advantage of the fact that Jeff was on jury duty all week.  I just really hope that the two boys do want to come back and do better when they return.  I'd much rather have them here than out on the streets all afternoon.  Especially with the rise in violent crime around town lately.

Cancelled Day
As harsh as it sounds, the kids who got kicked out really only missed one day.  We cancelled the program on Thursday for because of a whole bunch of reasons, the combination of which meant we would have too few volunteers, too many kids with no homework, nowhere to send the kids during garden workshop, and too few rooms by the end of the day, with just me setting everything up and making sure everything worked out.  Instead, I used the time to plan our Advent calendar, starting next week, let volunteers know about the week off (for everyone but staff!), and continue planning the Math Adventure Journal!  (I have to make it sound cool!)

We've started figuring out our Christmas party (thankfully, Emily is organizing that!) and we're going to be opening an hour early for the kids who are getting out of school early for the next 2 weeks!  We may have been crazy when we decided this.  But, on the bright side, it means the kids actually have time for their Advent calendar and associated activities!

Week Off?
It's Thanksgiving week and our kids get the week off of school, which means they also get the week off from us.  But that doesn't mean WE get the week off!  Nope!  This week is fundraising week.  Everybody's favorite!  But in all seriousness, we do need to do it, and we've been so busy with actually running the program that we haven't had a chance to.  I don't know about Jeff, but almost every one of my regularly scheduled weekly fundraising sessions has been postponed due to some kind of emergency that I had to deal with (getting kids picked up, people showing up, etc.).  So it's good we have this time.  Only to be interrupted by our delivery of Thanksgiving Baskets to our kids tomorrow (anyone want to help?), writing a letter of recommendation for a REALLY AMAZING volunteer who wants to go into teaching, and the random phone calls I've been getting all morning.  And maybe cleaning my desk.  (It really needs it.)

Thanksgiving
I just want to be sure everyone knows how truly thankful I am to be working in this job.  To be supported by wonderful people like you.  To be there for our kids (even when they're driving me crazy... because it is so rare).  To work with amazing volunteers and colleagues, and to work for such an awesome Board.  I have a lot to be thankful for, and I hope you do too!

"Hope is the Physician of Each Misery." ~Irish Proverb

So, I've clearly done a terrible job of keeping up with this.  One might ask how it is that I now am being paid full-time, and yet have no time to actually keep up with the blogging to tell everyone what's going on, when I was doing it just fine at half time.  Well, I have no idea what happened, but I can promise it's because they're keeping me very, very busy at Pomona Hope and not because I've forgotten altogether.

I can't even remember most of the things I need to catch you up on anymore, so I'll just do the recent ones:

Art Projects
I am terrible at art.  I can't draw a straight line with a ruler.  I could probably eventually copy something close to what it is supposed to look like, but that generally is something that takes me so long that my lack of patience wins out.

As the Kids Coordinator, part of my job is coming up with an Art project twice a week for my Kindergarten through 3rd graders and once a week for my 4th-6th graders.  This has tended to be one of my more stressful, last minute endeavors all year.  And the younger kids usually end up with some kind of coloring project.

Thankfully, one of our lovely volunteers from Lifesong Church (Thanks Susan!) asked if there was anything that she and her Bible Study group of women, most of whom were unable to actually come in during programs hours, could do to help out.  And it turns out, they're great at arts and crafts!  So they've been planning and creating examples, and providing some of the materials for art projects for our K-3rd graders for the past 2 months, and it has been wonderful!  More proof that God answers prayers people (even silly, little ones, like "God, please don't make me come up with art projects... it's hard.").

The 4th-6th graders, I've been a little more devious with.  They're not as widespread in abilities as our K-3rd graders, so it's a little easier to find something for them, and since they're at the age where math becomes fairly difficult (suddenly jumping from 2 + 2 = 4 and 2 x 2 = 4 to fractions and solving for variables), and I usually have a math professor (thanks Todd!) in the room with them at the time they start their Art time once a week, I've been giving them math-based art projects.

And starting in January, we're going to be working on Math Adventure Journals that are a mixture of history, bible study, math, and art in their art sessions, as well as on Fridays for workshops.  (This idea is very heavily based on the stuff that this teacher at a private, Christian middle school does with his kids: http://www.mathsquad.com/mathjournal.html.)  I already asked the kids about it and they seem pretty excited!  I've been working on my own example journal to show them, and it is interesting, but the art part REALLY slows me down.  Still not my spiritual gift.

Halloween: Haunted Tour
I have been kicking myself for almost 2 weeks for completely forgetting to take pictures on Halloween.  But it was a really fun day!  Usually on Thursdays, we have our weekly Garden Workshop for the kids, but that day our AMAZING volunteer (Thanks, Barb) who has been running it all year was unable to come.  She let us know well in advance, so we were able to plan around it!  Another awesome volunteer (Thanks Kevin), who happens to live and work at 1st Pres as the Residential Manager put together a really neat "Haunted Tour" of the 3rd floor of the building.

You see, the kids only go up to the 3rd floor to go to the computer lab once a week.  One of the rules in the computer lab is if you get a warning up there, no matter how many you've gotten (or haven't gotten) that day, you come straight back downstairs and hang out with the coordinator until computer lab is over.  We don't want the kids messing with (or around) the equipment.  The kids REALLY don't want to get a warning up there because for years the rumor has spread among them that the 3rd floor is haunted.  I don't know who started it, but it probably hasn't helped that they do pass the rooms where people are living and they have occasionally seen shadows pass windows in rooms they can't enter.

So, we decided to capitalize on that (I did remind the younger students that we do not actually have ghosts before they went up).  The rooms chosen for the tour were on the opposite side of the floor from anywhere they'd been allowed to go before.  They are also some of the creepier rooms in the building to begin with.  One was a giant room being used for storage (in a building that's at least 70-80 years old), one is a kitchen area that has windows leading out to a room that used to be the roof (but at one point it was leaky and they found it was cheaper to build a whole new roof than to fix the already existing leaky one), and one room, at the end of the tour, was nearly empty and had no windows at all (easy to make dark).  The plan was to set it up like a maze and have our high school volunteers be "ghosts" with the kids having the chance to pick up 7 or 8 pieces of candy on the way through, and then they would have to defeat the "Boss" ghost at the very end to leave, by playing a ring toss game with glow bracelets.  I believe the idea came from Luigi's Haunted Mansion (video game).

We were concerned that our Junior Highers (our oldest group) were scheduled to go through first, since they were supposed to go through before our high schoolers usually got there, and when it was still pretty light outside (all but one room had giant windows... even with light-blocking curtains, it's hard to make it REALLY dark), and plus, they're in Junior High, so nothing is exciting.  But they actually enjoyed it so much, that many of them finished their homework early just so that they could go upstairs again to help with the younger groups!

Halloween: Trick-or-Treat
At the end of our Program day, we usually offer an extra optional homework hour for the kids who know coming in for the day that they are not going to finish their homework in the time allotted to them that day.  But on Halloween, we cancelled it (no one would have stayed that day anyway, no homework for most of the kids who usually do!) so that we could take our kids Trick-or-Treating in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.  I did not know this before, but apparently there are a couple streets in that area that get so into Halloween that the police block off the streets to through traffic just so that people can Trick-or-Treat.  12 kids signed up to go with us, and we all had a blast.  We had about 1 hour for the actual Trick-or-Treating part, and it was the perfect amount of time to go through one whole street.  Two of the kids who came with us didn't have costumes, so we let them borrow some of the stuff we have for our Summer plays, and they were SO happy!  One of them just had a king's crown and a purple robe and people kept telling him that they liked his costume and he ate it up!  Very cute.

I'm glad we went to that as early as we did (still mostly daylight/dusk) because it was pretty dark by the time we were leaving, it was getting really crowded and pretty scary for our kids.  I want to go back next year.

Veteran's Day
Yesterday was Veteran's Day, and while we didn't do anything the day of (except have no programs), I did have the last minute idea for an art project (what?!) for the kids to make cards to send to deployed service men and women.  I found an organization to send it to called "Operation Gratitude" and just had the kids make cards.

But then, I figured I know enough Veterans, it wouldn't be too hard to find someone to come in, right? I had planned to ask Mr. Bob back, but he wasn't at church that Sunday, so instead, I asked Mr. Don, whom I've known almost my whole life, and I didn't know he was a Veteran until I randomly walked up to ask him on that Sunday.  Much less did I know that he was roommates with Elvis while he was in the Army.  One more reason I love my job:  I get to know people better by asking questions I would never have thought to ask in the first place.

He even wore his old uniform! Over 50 years later!!!

Garden Workshop Board Game
Any down time I've had has either gone into the Math Art Journal curriculum or the Garden Knowledge Board Game I've been working on in collusion with Barb for days that she can't come or the weather doesn't lend to a good learning environment outside.

The idea came to me when she got sick at the very last minute and we had our kids play board games instead.  As the daughter of a hardcore gamer, I was horrified to learn that even our Junior Highers were not interested in playing any games more difficult than the 3rd grade level (ex: Sorry, UNO, etc.).  This made me sad (and we will definitely be having more board game days soon), but in the meantime, I decided it would be best if we could still at least stick to a Garden theme.

With help from Barb, I came up with questions and answers (she mostly did the answers, I can't actually grow anything).  With help from Kevin, I came up with rules and board game design, and with help from another volunteer from Lifesong, I learned that I don't have to reinvent the wheel to actually create a game board, the internet has everything!  Then she edited the PDF I found in her fancy professional version of Adobe so that I could type in the spaces on the board!  (Thanks Christine!)

Now I have the dice, everything is printed up, most of the cards are cut out, and I just have to start pasting everything into the folders.  Maybe I'll have my sister do that when she comes to visit tomorrow. :-)

Volunteers
A big part of my stress lately (as the volunteer coordinator) has been finding enough volunteers for some days.  We usually have just enough on Mondays, we're pretty short on Tuesdays, we have volunteers coming out our ears two Wednesdays a month, and then struggle a little on the others, and Thursdays are mostly manageable.  It has been weighing on me heavily for the past few months that there just were not enough volunteers, especially for our youngest groups of kids (since they demand the most attention and there are SO MANY of them!), but also most days for our Junior High group (they have 3 separate classrooms to divide up into, but we have not had 3 volunteers available to be with them on most days, so they all do their homework in one giant room, which tends to be distracting for several of our Middle Schoolers), and our 4th-6th graders, probably our best-behaved, most low maintenance group, has been slipping by with the bare minimum because they are so well-behaved, but I know on many days they could use more help with homework especially.

I've finally made my peace with the lack of volunteers and started getting creative:  when there aren't enough adults helping the K-3rd grades, I ask the Junior Highers who are done with their homework if they're interested in helping out.  I've even asked a few of our 6th grade girls if they wanted to help the little kids instead of going to gym games.  Our kids are wonderful and definitely rose to the occasion, and I've been so impressed by them.  But I also don't want to rely on them regularly.  They need to have a chance to be kids too.

I've held several extra volunteer trainings (which are a lot of work to set up for and find the time for), made appearances at several different events asking for more volunteers, posted on websites, etc.  Other volunteers have told me of their efforts to reach out as well, and it still seems like not enough people.

I have been blessed with so many wonderful volunteers who come regularly and often and do a wonderful job when they're here, I just didn't understand why it still felt like I was falling short.  I finally asked Emily last week what I was doing wrong and she said that it's not that I was doing anything wrong, we probably have the same number, if not more volunteers than we usually do at this time, but that we have so many more students than we've ever had before and that almost half of them are all in one room and need help on a more 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of student to volunteer.

I am so SO thankful for my volunteers.  They are amazing.  Much of my concern comes out of asking them for extra help, so often, when they are just volunteering, it's not their job.  I don't want to overwhelm anyone or burn them out.  And so many of them are so wonderful and rise to the occasion every time, I just love them.  Even some of our high schoolers go above and beyond and it's overwhelming for me thinking about how awesome they all are.  Surely, there must be more out there! :-)

TRAINING: Shameless Plug
That being said,  are you bored in the afternoons and looking for something to do?  Between jobs or done with jobs or have a job that has flexible hours?  Do you like kids or Jesus or both and want to see them succeed?  I have one more regularly scheduled volunteer training for this calendar year, TOMORROW, November 13, from 3 to 5:30 pm.  If you are interested in become one of the awesome few, please let me know if you can make this (if you can't and you're still interested, contact me anyway, we may be able to work something out).  You can RSVP to me at liz@pomonahope.org

Funny Pictures
I shouldn't encourage this, but it's really funny to me: all the students have their own wallets to keep track of the money they get for doing good things like homework.  One of our Junior Highers threw his high up in the air in the gym and it got caught on the light above him.  What are the odds?!

Seriously, someone do the math, I want to know.

And this one is more cute than funny.  During our optional homework hour, sometimes the kids finish early, and sometimes students who have no homework (or have finished) stay so that their siblings with homework can finish theirs and parents only need to make one trip.  Had to find some way to entertain them while I helped kids with their homework.  Started chess club.

It's like Fight Club without the messiness.

“Yesterday is But a Dream, Tomorrow is Only a Vision. But Today Well Lived Makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness, and Every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.” ~ Kālidāsa

I wrote the following post on August 1st, and I THINK I was waiting to have pictures to post here.  It's been a crazy 2 months since then, so I completely forgot about it.  Most of this is still accurate.  I tried to change the times at the bottom to fit our current needs.  I will also try to update more frequently.  I'M SORRY!!!

It's over!  At least, by the time I actually post this with all of the pictures, it will be.  We held our end of the summer Open House event two days ago and yesterday and today were all about the field trips!

Performance at the dA
Our kids actually performed their play at the dA Center for the Arts in Downtown Pomona on Saturday.  The dA has been really wonderful and they are excited (as are we!) about partnering with us to teach the kids about art!  Which is great because half the time, I'm the one responsible for coming up with an art project, and I can't draw a straight line with a ruler.

Art is not my spiritual gift.

DISCLAIMER:  I did NOT take the following pictures (I think some of our LAUP interns did).  And the dA is an AWESOME place.  You should go check it out!  http://www.daartcenter.org/

They also came in last Thursday to talk to the kids about a beautiful mural in Downtown Pomona that depicts much of Pomona's history and a vision of its future.  It was really cool to point it out to the kids on our way down there, and I hope they take a closer look at it because it does show several of the things they learned about in the history workshop.

I can't comment on how the performace at the dA went, since I was "backstage" trying to corral and keep kids quiet.  But I heard that it went great, and it seemed to be standing room only in the gallery.  I also got some cute pictures and a video of the Troopers performing!

Open House
I was in charge of organizing the Open House event, which if you know me at all sounds like a bad idea.  But it all seemed to go really well!  It actually seemed way too easy, so I'm pretty sure I did something wrong... but the actual event looked great.  I'm 100% positive that's because I delegated the things I knew I wouldn't be good at to other people and they probably picked up my slack in other areas too.

Party planning is not my spiritual gift.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures at the event, but I'm hoping I'll get them soon from those who did.

Field Trips
I only get to go on the field trip I organized, and luckily, there wasn't a whole lot of organization on my part, since I asked a friend of Pomona Hope's if she could arrange something for us (she's definitely got connections!).  Here is what the kids got to do on all their field trips:

Yesterday:
1st graders got to go to Palomares Park and jump in a bounce house, play in the park, and have a pizza lunch.

4-5th graders got to go bowling!

Today:
Middle School students went to see Despicable Me 2 at the Edwards Theater in La Verne this morning, and they got drinks and popcorn.

Our 2-3rd graders will be taking a historical tour of the Fox Theater and then eating dinner at the Food Trucks at the Fairplex.

After School Program
Don't think that just because the Summer program is over that our staff gets a break.  Oh no.  We get about a week without kids in which we need to rearrange the rooms and set them up for the school year.  That's also the week that we need to train volunteers so that we have someone to hep us when we do open up again in 3 weeks to the students.  The week after volunteer training is when we will be testing students to determine in which group to place them.

If you're interested (which you totally are!) in volunteering with us for the After School Program, the upcoming dates and times of trainings are as follows (and you only need to attend one):

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 3-5:30 pm

Tuesday, August 6, 3-5pm (returning adult volunteers only)
Wednesday, August 7, 3-5pm (adults only)
Thursday, August 8, 3-5pm (adult and HS volunteers)

Please contact me at liz@pomonahope.org if you're planning on attending one of these trainings this training.

After this, we will be holding monthly training sessions on the first week of every month.

We also will need volunteers to help us test the kids on August 13th and 14th, 3:30-5:30 pm. (Too Late!)

Volunteering other people for things... THAT'S my spiritual gift.

"When Hope is Hungry, Everything Feeds It." ~Mignon McLaughlin

If you are reading this blog because you just got a letter from me, I want you to know that you have been prayed for.  (If you didn't get a letter and you want one, let me know.  Or if you just want to be prayed for... I'm open.)

Now, updates...

History Workshop
We're halfway through our fourth week of the Summer Enrichment program, and I just finished teaching my last history workshop (at least of the ones I'm teaching).  We're having a guest speaker come in from the dA Center for the Arts (in downtown Pomona) to talk to the kids about the goddess, Pomona for the last full history workshop of the summer.

Since the visit from Mr. Bob, I've been telling the kids about Pomona's history specifically.

I've told the kids about the Tongva Indians, who used to live all over Southern California, and had two rancherias in Pomona (which made up a village called Toibi).  They learned about their culture, which is different from most of the other American Indians you study in school: men AND women could be chief, they lived relatively peacefully and traded with their neighbors, and they only believed in one God, in a religion that have parts that are very similar to Christianity!  In fact, one of the stories I told them about the Tongva had to do with this last fact and the almost attack on Mission San Gabriel.  (Ask me if you want to know!  It's super cool!)  How's that for a plug?

I've told the kids about Ricardo Vejar and Ignacio Palomares.  They were the two men who came to Pomona to settle here after the Tongva left to live in the Mission (or died because of the new diseases that they couldn't fight off). Vejar and Palomares got here after Mexico declared independence and were granted the land by the Mexican governor.  Back then, it was called Rancho San Jose.  I also told them about how Vejar lost his land to pay back his debts and Louis Phillips slowly bought it up while he was the caretaker of it.  The kids were excited because many of them recognize those names because streets, schools, and parks are named after them.  That same day they also learned about Spadra and the Citrus industry in the valley, and then they made their own crate labels!  (I so wish I got pictures of them now!)

On this day, I got a little nervous teaching, because we had volunteers in the room who are teachers by trade.  At the end of the workshop one of them was in, though, she paid me the highest compliment and told me that she forgot that she was there to help because she was so interested in what I was saying and the way I was teaching the kids!  YAY!

I walked the kids down to the YMCA (literally at the end of the block) and told them about the Palomares Hotel that used to be right where we were sitting and how it was the center of social life in the valley.  But that ended when it burned down, and later the town lobbied for a YMCA to be built there (right after WWI).  I also told them about a terrible train wreck that happened on Christmas Eve of 1899 that led the town to the collective decision to open a hospital (now Pomona Valley Hospital). 

And Jelitza got back from her orientation at UC Berkeley, so I had her lead the discussion of the quotes.  She, of course, was awesome!

Last Thursday, I showed the kids a slideshow of pictures of old schools, parks, and churches and we played a little game:  I made them guess what each one was before I told them what it was and sometimes told them funny tidbits about it.  Like the first Pomona High School, which then became the first Emerson Middle School, which is now Emerson Village, a retirement community.  It's just funny for me to think that people who went to middle school there might be living there now.

Yesterday was a very serious discussion for our older kids.  I told all the kids about the L.A. County Fair, but the younger two groups, I just focused on how it was started and then showed them pictures of that and the Fox Theater and talked about how those things are still around today even after 80-100 years!  (Which was the point of the picture slideshow too.)

The older kids learned about the Japanese Internment Camps and how the government ordered everyone of Japanese descent out of their homes to live in the internment camps, and that the Fairgrounds were an Assembly Center where they lived from April 1942 to August 1942 (during the hot summer months... in Pomona!) before they were moved to Manzanar to live for up to 3 years.  I read them interviews I found in articles published last year who were taken, by force, to the camps as children.  And I showed the oldest group this picture, taken in Pomona: 

Then I asked them to think about how they would feel if all of this was happening to them.  I gave them a chance to write their reflections in relation to this quote:

The really cool part was that one of our LAUP interns, Jenn, had a grandmother who went into one of those internment camps, and she was moving with our oldest group of kids for the day.  So she shared what she was told about them as well, and how it affected her family.  Honestly, if I had known that she was Japanese American, I would have felt a little more nervous about it, going in (but all I knew was that she's pretty and awesome).  But at the end of the day, she actually thanked me for teaching about it.

Coordinating

The days that I was not leading a history workshop, I was the Coordinator for the program.  My responsibility in that job is to tell everyone when it's time to go to their next workshop, field volunteer and student questions and problems, keep track of discipline, call parents, if needed, and deal with any other problems and emergencies as they come up.  Sometimes, I have days where everything is going wrong and I don't get anything done outside of putting out fires.  Sometimes, I get time to visit the workshops and take some awesome pics.

Learning silent "E"

Unfortunately, the last two days I've coordinated, there were many fires to put out, so I didn't get AS many pictures.  Here's hoping today goes better!

Donations

We've had a lot of in-kind donations lately, and a lot of requests for a wish list of some kind so that people make sure to get us stuff they know we need (hence the last blog post).  And it is SUPER awesome guys!  Thank you so much!

One of the most touching donations this summer is from the La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church's Vacation Bible School (VBS).  They asked us a few months ago what "big ticket" item we might need, and we asked for new soccer nets and soccer balls for the kids to play with.  The kids in the VBS program brought in nearly $530 in change over the course of one week!  I got to stop by on Wednesday that week to thank them for what they were doing and invite them to come play with us sometime, so who knows?  Maybe some day they will!

Bible Study

Usually, my bible study section is reserved for our girls bible study, but we've all been way too busy to have an actual bible study session... a couple of us watched "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding" last week though.  We also invited our LAUP interns.  Then Some of us spent time contrasting the similarities between the Greek and Mexican cultures.  It was fun!

But this time I put Bible Study in because we're working with LifeSong Community Church to implement a new bible study during the school year.  Before now, we had a dear friend and volunteer coming in once a week to lead a bible study for the K-3rd graders, and this year another volunteer stepped in to lead one for the junior highers, but there was a void in the bible study programming for our 4th and 5th graders.  Our volunteers from LifeSong noticed this gap and have offered to step in and fix it with a new curriculum that they have access to.  We all went to a training a couple weekends ago for the adult portion of their curriculum, and I think that, with a little tweaking, it will work!  LifeSong is taking point on this project too.  They're really doing great and I'm so glad they're on our team!