Karaoke!

Probably the highlight of this week was spending some quality time with my coworkers outside of the Boys and Girls Club!  Sarah, Scott and Lauren are all avid Glee fans and we have all been talking about the idea of having a Glee karaoke night for quite a while.  And this week it happened!  We all got together after work on Tuesday and went to Sarah’s house, ordered a pizza, watched an episode and then jammed for hours into the night!

This is just another aspect of my Summer of Service and my community engagement in general that I did not expect.  I anticipated becoming close with the kids and building relationships with them, but I never really thought about building friendships with the other counselors as well.  And those friendships are probably the strongest ones I have made throughout the entire summer!  I just get along with this staff really well, including our supervisor, and we all plan to do something together again next week before we finish up our term.

Also, Scott and I are going head-to-head against Lauren at the Talent Show next Friday.  It will be on my last afternoon at the Boys and Girls Club and we were going hardcore to seal this victory.  A bunch of the kids are participating too, and Tenicia even asked me to rap the Juicy J. section of Katy Perry’s Dark Horse.  Scott and I have written a very impressive 13 song medley composed of favorites amongst the kids.  The rules state that the kids will decide the winner amongst the participating adults, and the adults will decide the winner amongst the participating kids, so we have to appeal to our audience!  Other talent show acts include Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Problem, Roar, Let it Go, and some dancing.  I am very pumped.

Thankfully I’ve gotten the chance to move around from the arts and crafts station for a little while, being assigned to help run sports usually once or twice a week.  Although I love arts and crafts and the interest level in it has been growing rapidly, it just requires a lot of extra set-up and clean-up time which can be frustrating.  And I feel like the kids are continuing to test their limits this week, especially since a groundskeeper at the lake we go to has decided to “join the staff” and run activities as a counselor.  He has not training, no plans, no respect for the curriculum we have set aside, and just takes a couple kids to do his own activity that is sometimes dangerous.  He’s teaching 7-year-olds how to throw cards at each other and balance bats and chairs on their heads.  It’s ridiculous sometimes!

It’s absolutely all worthwhile though and I cannot get enough of some of these kids.  Ak’tavia, Camari, Cincear, Kit Kat, Donavan – they are all such amazing kids that really make me realize how much of an impact I want to have with the Community Partnership for Children when I get back to Florida.  Working with kids and spending a lot of time with them can yield some really incredible experiences and I appreciate it every day.