Yesterday was my first volunteer experience in the city and boy oh boy was it a blast! Free ARTS NYC is an organization that's provides a variety of programs for under-served kids and families all over the city. I participated in Free Arts Saturday with 100 kids and 100 other volunteers.
Each volunteer is paired up with a "buddy" and travels around the world via crafting!! 8 year old Apoeseh and I created a European castle, African mask, North American totem pole, Chinese ribbon and South American maracas! Watching (and helping) Apoeseh design and create the castle was remarkable. Seriously, she was a little futuristic architect! Everyone was complimenting her creation as they walked by and she would give a quick thank you while keeping focus on her building.
After crafting we ate Little Ceasar's Pizza and had juice boxes (it's been way too long! they were yummy!). During lunch, I was able to meet two of Apoeseh's friends and we played 20 questions (one person thinks of a person/place/thing and you have 20 questions to figure out what it is). Apoeseh's 6 year old friend, Tata, ate 6 pieces of pizza... that's right... I was very proud and he was ADORABLE!
After lunch, we enjoyed a performance by two chinese ribbon dancers (the male was also an acrobat who could do crazy things with his body!!). I learned that in addition to applauding after a chinese performance you can say "good" (but in chinese... pretty much "how"). I was saying it a lot! Apoeseh was in awe. She never took her eyes off the stage.
The 5 hours FLEW by! That seems like such a long time, but there was never a dull moment. I look forward to returning next month!
Here is the website for Free Arts! Check out all the amazing things they do to serve the community and enhance opportunities for everyone! http://www.freeartsnyc.org/
(we weren't supposed to take pictures so these don't really represent the top notch experience)
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