When will my [week 6] Reflection show, who I am inside???

First off, for anyone who gets the song reference in the title, KUDOS!

Second off, we had another rousing week here at the Gary Comer Youth Center and are thrilled to finally have the balls in motion for our project. Monday and Tuesday we were at the center working on what our final big event is going to be: Wellness Fair that will take place NEXT Saturday Aug. 7 at Hoard Park. Because we are going to be paired with the Revere Back to School Jam, we had a few meetings with some of the representatives. They all seemed very excited to work with us and have us at the fair, giving presentations about nutrition and stress management. In the long term, this will be very beneficial because not only will we be reaching teens, but also younger children and their parents as well. So far, we have a few posters made that will encompass stress management, effects of stress on the body, the NEW food pyramid, some fun nutrition game, and a few other handouts for the people. Another possibility is having some yoga instructors give short demonstrations for the people, as well as a possible masseuse?? (more info in the next few days)

On Wednesday, the whole group went on a field trip to Common Threads, an non-profit organization that teaches children how to cook.
Taniqua: I thought it was a really good program, and my favorite part of the day was dancing the Merengue even though I don't like to dance.
Bennie: I thought that the trip was really fun and enjoyed spending time with the kids. My favorite part of the day was learning the Merengue!
Iysha: I thought Common Threads was interesting and fun, especially how kids so young were learning how to cook and use sharp knives. I also thought it was crazy that you have to volunteer for 12 weeks, a very long time. My favorite part of the day was tasting some food and the dancing.
Sarah: I thought it was a very cool place to visit because they don't just teach cooking, they also teach about new culutures - something really neat. One impressive thing about their nonprofit is that they have grown very quickly by getting people who work as chefs to lead their organization on various levels. Overall, Common Threads was a fun place to visit because our kids got to try such different things. I'd say it was the favorite trip of the year!

On Thursday, we worked on putting together the educational brochures and pamphlets that we will distribute to the community at our wellness fair. It takes a great deal of formatting and choosing just the right amount of information to put on a piece of paper, but I think we'll figure it out. We hope that these can be used by the center for future reference, which will direct teens or adults to resources for dealing with stress or mental health management. A great thing about the center is they actually just hired a man here, who is a PhD and has worked with a focus on stress and mental health wellness....right up our alley. We hope to pair with him in the upcoming weeks and figure out a possible long term project for us to use.

I was unfortunately MIA on Wednesday and Thursday due to my formidable foe the rhinovirus, but I came back Friday stronger than ever to work on our project some more. We found out that the end of summer Teen Expo for the GCYC will be taking place next Wednesday evening, and Iysha, Taniqua and Bennie are expected to present about their experiences with SSP. We've been working on preparing the presentations, making sure we give everyone a brief overview of all that we have done. I think I realized this more as I went along, but we have done a LOT this summer, and the time has truly flown by. From field trips, to educational classes, to films viewed and readings, our busy scheduled helped pass the time. I cannot believe we are already ending week 6....only 2 weeks left?! CRAZY! It has definitely been an exciting ride, and I cannot imagine my summer going any other way.