This morning I helped out at bowling - I was helping on a lane with a brother and sister who are both in wheelchairs. The cool teenage girl who I was with at Kids Paradise was also there today and ran up and gave me a big hug when she saw me. She wanted me to help on her lane but I told her I couldn't today as my boss wanted me to help someone else, and she said 'no - you help us - YOU are the boss!'. In the afternoon we had swimming. It was fun as Pauline (on the Mollies basketball team) came with her kids so I got to help them out - I really don't know how she does it with all of those kids - she is amazing! Aaron and the boys came swimming for the last hour and I got to work with them (in other words - I got to swim with them!). I'm so lucky to have such a great job. Jay said it wasn't fair as I got to go and have fun all the time. I reminded him that he also got to come and have fun as well.
It is such a great program and I really can't believe that it is fully funded. My boss told me today she has 70 families on her books and usually about 40 families participate every school holidays. She now has a waiting list for new families wanting to join up. We were lucky to hear about it as soon as Noah was eligible for it - Harri's child health nurse told us about it - her son is also disabled and took part in the program. Hopefully the funding will continue so that other families can also participate.
My boss asked me yesterday if our family was interested in going to camp during January next year.
Each Summer they have 5 days at Camp Clayton and invite 5 or 6 families who have children with disabilities to come along. They usually try to work out a good mix of families - people that they know will have a good time together and who's children will get along well. They have at least 5 workers go to help out and it is just an opportunity for families to have a holiday and have help with the kids. She was saying that most parents love that they can go for walks along the beach etc and leave the kids with the workers for a while. Everything is paid for and done for you - including all the cooking - sounds good to me! Unfortunately the week before camp we are going away to the East Coast and the week after camp we are going to Sydney so we will probably just need a week at home to rest. We may go up and spend a day or two there though as it sounds like lots of fun.
I haven't been there since I was in grade 7 but supposedly it is really different now and it has lots of different things to do - it is right on the beach and also has things such as a BMX bike track, archery, flying fox, obstacle course, games room, mini golf, rock climbing wall and a giant swing. Jalen thinks it sounds 'awesome' and is already getting excited about it and is asking us if he can pack certain things already!
I'm thinking that now work is over, I'm sure I won't have very much to post on my blog anymore! When I first started this thing I said to Aaron that at first I would have lots to post, but things will quieten down and I won't have much to post after a while. So far things haven't got quiet - maybe they will from now on :)
Lisa your job really does sound like fun, so glad you enjoyed it so much.
ReplyDeleteThat camp sounds great, wish there was something like that here in the states.