I’m back, and none the worse for wear. Here are the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lakeneuron/sets/72157594208181265/
The photo you se here is me with two of the Kaleidoscope kids. This year, we had a mix of special needs and non-special-needs children, owing in part to the fact that Mountain T.O.P.’s Day Camp program won’t return until next year.
It was a fabulous week. We had a small camp population — which is sad from the standpoint of not being able to serve more kids or do more home repair projects, but everyone gets to know everyone else, and so you get some incredible Christian community. The staff was terrific, with Gwynda Eversole as the AIM director this summer. Home repair was managed by one of my favorite people on the planet, Frances Dellinger, with Brian Tatchin rounding out the home repair staff. Our Kaleidoscope experience was led by Sarah McLaughlin and Jamie Travis, who did a super job especially considering that they had to raise the Summer Plus and Kaleidoscope programs from the dead (they weren’t held last year).
I assisted in the craft workshop led by Donna Rea and Karen Heilman, who came to the AIM week from Maryland. Donna and Karen led the kids in everything from decoupage to sewing little felt “prayer pillows” with a pocket in which you can put a little note or prayer.
We had the same group of kids each day for our morning workshop and then rotating groups of kids in the afternoon.
I felt bad because I screwed up the mixing of cement for little stepping stones for the morning workshop. I added too much water and didn’t stir well enough. (Karen and Donna left me a playful note advising me not to mix concrete in Kenya. Har-de-har-har.)
During our “circuit play” period in the afternoons, I ran the “make a book” station, where kids threaded pages together with yarn and then made their own little books.
I guess I will break this account up and continue it in another post.