For me, the highlight of
the month was the art day. We had about 35 children and 10
teenagers. We also had all our staff and 11 Volunteers which helped make
the day go very smoothly. I noticed early on that ALL the kids we had
were calm. Everyone was going with the program, there were ZERO
meltdowns, and everyone was having fun, and just enjoying themselves. It was
great! We had 45 kids from White Swan doing art for 4 hours without any
incident. As an aside, pretty much every Sunday, there’s a kid or several
who has trouble going with the program, but on Art Day, everything went
smoothly.
Some of us spoke afterwards, that we may have given a false
impression to the volunteers. The kids struggle to regulate their
emotions, with following directions, with interacting with adults, with
completing tasks, in feeling successful, and are often emotionally
“fragile.” But for four hours, they had fun, successfully completed
projects, and were able to just be kids having fun making art. Maybe next
time the volunteers come, they’ll see a different side to the kids, but that’s
ok. Empowering the kids, building relationships, deepening trust, and
giving them little moments of success go a long way towards helping them heal
and pointing them to Christ.
Woodworking:
Drawing Cartoons:
Painting:
Dancing:
