Toxic waste, wheelchair soccer, take apart art, and crossfire youth ministries! whew!

Last week we had one busy class! It was our second session of long activities facilitated by my classmates. We started off by playing a game called toxic waste. The class was divided into two groups and we each had a styrofoam cup that had the same number of strings attached to it as the number of participants. The cup was full of beads and the object of the game was to transport the cup from one side of the room to the other, using the strings only, and dump the beads from the inicial cup to another. The specific population that the group had in mind when playing this game were people with drug or alcohol addictions. The dumping of the beads from one cup to the other symbolized ridding oneself of the drug that had taken over their life. The partipants had the option of sharing their struggle with the rest of the participants. I thought that this could be a valuable game if it was played with participants who are willing to share their feelings. I, however, think it might be a challenge for some people to take this metaphor seriously and be willing to share their feelings with the other participants. I guess it just all depends on who you're working with. I thought the group did a good job presenting, though, and it was a very creative idea.

The next activity we had a chance to take a part in was called, "take apart art". For this project, everyone in the class was given a small piece of paper with a design on it. We then had to copy the picture onto an 8x11 piece of paper. After everyone was done we put the pieces together (in a designated pattern) and it ended up making one large picture of a peace sign made out of handprints.  The population that the group focused on was youth at risk. They talked about some of the numerous benefits art has such as reducing anxiety and tension, an outlet for expression, a means of communication, can increase self-awareness, cognitive abilities, and reducing stress. I thought that this was a very beneficial activity and could definetely be beneficial as a creative outlet for the appropriate population. You can visit the official website here

Next we had a presentation from one of our classmates about a facility called "Crossfire Youth Ministry", located in LaCrosse. To view Crossfire's website, click here. This facility is geared towards youth in the LaCrosse area. It's a facility where teenagers can go and hangout with their friends in a safe and substance free environment. It provides a supportive and encouraging environment, which some might be provided at their own homes. I think this sounds like a wonderful program and I would be interested in doing some volunteer hours there next year!

Finally we headed over to the REC to play some wheelchair basketball. The group who facilitated this activity first showed us a short video about powerchair soccer, which you can see here. It's amazing to see the skills and abilities that these players have and I can definitely say that it is easier than it looks. We tried to play a few games ourselves and it was very frustrating because I felt like I had no control over where the ball was going and I was nervous when I was wheeling towards another chair. In the video however, you can clearly see that they are NOT gentle with each other, they ram into one another and have so much control over their chairs, it's amazing. It makes me have a lot of respect for all athletes who use wheelchairs because they have to overcome the barrier of their physical limitation but still manage to be incredible athletes!