One thing I love about my job is being able to help organize Give Back events. This morning we volunteered with SAFE Austin, a women’s and children’s shelter for domestic violence. During the summer they have a kids camp to entertain the kids who stay on the campus. We’ve worked with them a couple times in the past to come join their field days.
This year they asked us to organize the activities for the kids, so I spent time this week nervously reading through articles on kids activities and drawing on my own summer camp memories. The other volunteers weighed in as well.
All in all, the morning flew by. We started out by doing crafts inside. We had two options: friendship bracelets and superhero puppets made out of paper bags. I bet you can guess which one I came up with. And it’s basically the only time I’ve ever said “Do you watch Miraculous Ladybug?” to a group and half of them said yes and started talked about Chat Noir. I love kids.
We moved outside for the second half of the morning, and I organized a relay potato sack race (with potato sacks I fully intended to reuse at a company event in the future) and then water balloon games, ending in an all-out water balloon fight. Hauling in the water balloons took the most planning, but you can order them so they are easy to fill a bunch up at once. Well, easier. My friend Ashley did most of the work yesterday with our sink at work when it was very clear to her that I was out of my depth before I realized it myself.
We had pizza delivered to the kids so they could have a hot lunch and left with them some brownies and cookies for an afternoon snack. And then back to work. But it felt good to be out of the office and interacting with kids, the whole loud, rambunctious group. I was really nervous that what I planned would fall flat – do I actually know what kids like or do I just know what I like – but I had no reason to be. The kids had fun. The counselors (most of them volunteers themselves) got a break. And I gave back while getting to talk about superheroes.
Win – Win – Win.
With Love,
Natalie