At Vincent Massey students continued assisting in the Pre-K, Kindergarten, Grade 1, 3, & 4 classes. Some highlights: Morgan is becoming attached to the little ones, Mackenzie and Tandy helped decorate the gym for the airband competitions tomorrow, and Nick discovered his inner teacher in the grade 4 class. All the students continue to report enjoying themselves, and agreeing that taking care of young ones for an entire day can be exhausting!
At Farm-in-the-Dell it was a rainy day, but that was okay because it was bowling day! The clients and students continued to interact with one another by showing off their favorite bowling moves, and playing Bingo!
At Habitat it was muddy, so muddy that the site shut down at noon. Johnathan M. slipped in the mud and somehow Keita, who worked like a beast, didn't get dirty at all. The rest of us got trenchfoot (History 20 students should get this WWI allusion). the build site is right beside an electrical station complete with barbed wire fencing which added to the trench warfare ambiance.
With our plans changing a bit for the day we travelled to the Habitat Restore and toured their office building in the afternoon. What an amazing organization! I would encourage anyone to volunteer here. One of the day's highlights was presenting the $1,000 cheque that RJC students and staff collected earlier in the year in our Change for Change fundraiser. The Habitat staff was touched by this gesture, and the Executive Director even met with us to thank us. She also shared about how Habitat uses all the donations to fund families, not for administration costs (these are paid for by the income from the Restore). The volunteer coordinator brainstormed with the students about how to make the experience better for future groups. She said that if she wants to get things done she likes to work with motivated high schools groups because they are keen to see change, and willing to try new things, and are open-minded. What an encouragement!
Tomorrow we are back in the schools and attending the Youth Unchained conference in Saskatoon before heading up to Camp Kinasao to debrief.
