Welcome back, everyone! I know it’s been two weeks since the last time we posted, but I promise it wasn’t because of laziness. During the week of June 23, we held the Summer Arts Camp at First Baptist Church and it was a great success. And this past Saturday we were at the Farmers’ Market where I helped my fellow intern Hillary Clary with arts and crafts. Now that we’re back, I feel obligated to let you know how it all turned out. As I alluded to before, we held the Summer Arts Camp two weeks ago, which was my first time participating in the event, and based on Ms. Jessica Slaughter’s opinion, the week went much smoother than I expected. Ms. Slaughter told me the kids could get pretty rowdy, especially that week when we were expecting more kids than the previous week. Thankfully, the week was nothing like that. The kids acted well. There wasn’t any dissension or disobedience. Everyone listened to the teachers and Bethany, the camp coordinator, and had much fun.
Throughout the week, I was Bethany’s assistant and the general helper. Whatever she or any of the teachers needed, I aided them. I also shadowed Bethany to learn how she organized the camp, as I would be in her role for the camp in two weeks. Bethany was very organized which enabled me to get a good grasp on the process fairly quickly.
The teachers and volunteers were great, also. On the last day of the camp, we displayed the work the children created throughout the week and they were impressive, a testament of the work of the teachers. The play that capped off the camp was great, too, and it was even better as it was apparent the kids enjoyed it, too.
Saturday, July 5, I helped Hillary at the NCLAC station at the Farmers’ Market. Unlike the first time I attended the Farmers’ Market, the weather was really nice throughout. Another differentiation from my first visit was the amount of kids that arrived to participate. We were swamped with activity as more and more kids came by to make hats out of paper bags. Hillary and I were continuously transforming the paper bags into hats for the kids to draw on. When we did have free time, though, we visited some of the stations, in particular the station with the “muffin man (I’m sorry I forgot his name)” as he had many delicious-looking muffins on sale. I grabbed myself a banana nut muffin, and it was excellent. I said it before and I’ll say it again, I urge everyone to visit the Farmers’ Market at least once. If you do, you’ll most likely return.
That about sums up my last two weeks. I’m currently preparing for next week’s Summer Arts Camp, which is expected to be as populous as the first. I’m anticipating another great week with another good group of kids, after which I will report back and tell you about the experience. Until then, have a great week!