A Win -Win Situation - Young People Helping Young Children -

For the past many years,  I ran a vacation bible camp for kids in Toronto.  A few years ago, I  moved on and started a new summer camp in the city of Waterloo, an hour and half drive from Toronto.

Previous Campers Assuming  Leadership Roles at the Camp

 I am very proud that this year, three of the campers who attended the Waterloo's very first summer camp in 2008 are now the leaders of the camp.

A Parent Volunteer Helps to teach an Abacus Class for VBS Children

We have run this camp for five years and I receive a lot of help and support from parents each year.

Frankly, without parents and the teens' assistance, I would never be able to run the annual camp on my own.

Young People Getting Experience Working with Young Children

Parents are very happy that their children have a place to go;  teens are delighted that they are getting some experience working with younger children.

Teens Taught the Kids How to Make Slime Balls

Our teenage volunteers are very creative and hardworking. They spend a lot of time preparing interesting activities for our young campers such as science experiments, sports, games and crafts activities.

Children playing a game of Elephant Ball led by the Teen Leader

Each morning, the children come to the camp with bright eyes and busy tails, eager and ready to participate in the many activities and games prepared by the high school volunteer camp leaders.

If the Ball Went Through Between Your Legs, You're Out!

The high school volunteers do not get paid, but a free lunch and  valuable experience working with children at the camp.

They research, plan and lead activities for campers every day.

Teaching the Children Songs and Dance at the Camp!

 In Ontario, secondary school students must complete a 40 hour volunteer work program before they can graduate from high school.

The non profit church run summer camp  provides an inexpensive but quality program to neighbourhood children as well as valuable work experience  for teens keeping them off the streets and out of troubles.

It is a win-win situation for both young children and high school students!


R.T.
Director - TECA
Toronto Education &
Communications Associates
Directing a VBS Camp
Waterloo, Ontario

Fun Native Games at the Crawford Lake Conservation Park, Ontario

For the past few years I have been helping to run a summer camp for kids in the city of Waterloo during one of the summer months. Working with kids make me feel young and I just love being with them.

We had a training camp for the leaders in Waterloo at the beginning of August and did quite a bit of planning. Currently, we are in our second week of the camp and we have fourteen volunteers for the two weeks of camp. Pretty amazing indeed!

Learning to Play the Native Stick Game from Al at Crawford Lake 

Our kids had a lot of fun last Friday when we visited the Crawford Lake Conservation Area in Campbellville, Burlington, and learned about the Native peoples of Canada.

Crawford Lake is a 230 acre park; it is also a world biosphere reserve with beautiful boardwalk surrounding a lake.




Crawford Lake is a heritage site with a 15th century reconstructed Iroquoian Village. We booked a half day program and Al, our guide, was great in guiding us through the long house where the Iroquois used to live and sharing with us the native culture and their games.   

 Al made quite an impression on the children; and they would certainlyl remember for a long time what they had learned on our visit to the recreated Iroquoian Village  and their culture. Al told stories about native culture and the children learned that:

1. The grandmother was the leader of the native Indian people
2. The average life expectancy for women was 39 and for men was 34
3  The three things that native young men must learn if they were to get married:  they must be able to hunt, fish and protect their village

 

Playing one of the Native games

The children had a fabulous time learning to play the native games.

Al taught us three native games:

-  La cross
-  Sticks
-  Three way pull.

Playing the Stick Game

The Stick Game - each person was given a number of sticks to hold with one hand.

He/she threw the sticks up in the air and tried to catch the sticks without changing his hand.

 Each player started with one stick and the number of sticks increased after each turn.

The person who could throw the sticks and catch the most number of sticks would become the winner. 

A Native Game - Three Way Pull

Three way pull - a stick was placed at equal distance on the ground where each person was standing.



A thick round rope was used for the game.










As the three people pulled, the first person  who was able to pull to his side and pick up the stick on his/her side was the winner.

It was a lot of fun!!! Hey, anytime we can get the kids away from video games, I think it's great!

R.T.
Crawford Lake Conservation Centre Ontario

Farewell, New York - A Mother's Prayer

New York is a wonderful city to visit.  For young people, it's an exciting place to live, work and play.


Our elder son loves living in New York and has worked and lived in New York City since he graduated from Yale a few years ago.

He has worked in Manhattan, lived  a decent apartment with a yard in the Upper West side neighborhood. Because of him being in New York, we have had many excuses to visit this city. 

Moving Day for Er's Belongings!

 However, his work hour has been exceedingly demanding depriving him of a normal social life. Therefore, he decided to call it quit from his job in New York and landed a job recently on the west coast.

Rosie and I went to New York and helped him relocate. It took a little while to find a trustworthy mover We finally found one and thank goodness they did show up and came on time on moving day!

It was great having my sister there helping me to supervise the move and  as the moving crew repacked some of the contents.


It did not seem like Er had a lot to move but it took from 9a.m to almost 1pm to complete the move. The most surprising part of the move was that we were required to pay almost $1500.00 more than the estimated quote!

I was so shocked and upset but managed to bargain it down to half of the extra charge.

It was quite an experience. But the movers did a good job wrapping everything carefully and we just hope that everything would get there undamaged.

After the move was completed, Rosie and I visited the Rockefeller Centre and I took her to the bus terminal to board the bus home.

On the eve of moving from the New York apartment, Kristen, Er\s flatmate played her keyboard while I sang for the last time in the apartment living room.

The temporary wall even had insulation. 

The next day was a busy day for us when both the wall removal company and Kristen's mover arrived on the same morning with only an hour apart.

Er's two bedroom apartment was converted back to one bedroom when the lease was terminated at the end of July.
The wall removers did a good job removing the "bubble" wall and there was no damage or marks on the ceiling or the floor where the wall once stood. Good job!

The bubble wall was removed in Er's  Manhattan Apt.

In the confusion of moving, Kristen forgot her gym bag, and a couple of other things, she came back to get them and even gave me a hand to remove the mirrors on the wall.

Finally, when everything was done, cleaned and garbage removed, I took one last look at the empty place.

This New York apartment was my son's home for the past five / six years. He started his first job here at one of the big firms. We had many good times here visiting him.

I know he loves New York and has made many friends here. After inspecting the place for the last time, I left my son's apartment with mixed emotions:
- sad for him for leaving his friends and network he has built  in this most exciting city on earth; happy for him to start a new life, a more relaxed hopefully more relationship centered life in SF.

The Backyard in Er\s Manhattan Apartment

Thank you, God for preparing a new job in a new city for our son! 

With this new job, we pray he would have a little more leisure time to reflect on his spiritual life, find a great church, experience revival;  please guide him, protect him and enable him to use his talents to help other people, make this world a better place and find his soul mate with whom to share his life. Amen!

R.T. Manhattan, New York City
July, 2013
 

New York City - Ample Places for Play and Rest

Visiting New York City is always a pleasant and exciting experience for me.  This time, it was extra special because I was with my sister.

 Not only did we visit the city and had the opportunity to admire its numerous beautiful architectures, we had time to catch up on our busy lives.

 Some of the sculptures placed at the busiest
streets of Manhattan are very interesting and eye catching such as these ones on the Ave of America.

 I think this is a cute one indeed!

A business man or a politician and maybe an orator dressed for a speech?

 This is one of my favourites!

Though New York City is a metropolis, we were pleasantly surprised to find little parks and quiet places hidden among monstrous skyscrapers with seating  provide to its residents and visitors.










We could always find a place to sit and rest our feet in the city.

 There is always a place to rest!

New Yorkers taking their lunch break in one of the many public spaces.

What a great place
to mediate and reflect for a while in the middle of a metropolis!

Though a busy city, Manhattan is a city built for people for business, for play, and allow its residents and visitors to take breaks and rest  for a moment from their hectic schedule.

It is a welcoming sight for tourists and residents alike to see benches placed in the middle of a city
at an intersection after a day of work or sight-seeing.

This is another reason why we love visiting New York!

There are many  places to see and visit in New York City.  Many of these buildings are full of history such as the the St. Patrick Cathedral we visited.

 Though currently under renovation, the St. Patrick's Cathedral is still open to the public.

I always enjoy looking at the architectural details
of some of the beautiful buildings in New York City.
















We attended the Sunday Service at the Baptist Church on Broadway and 81st Street.







I was glad that Rosie came with me to the Sunday Service. I was glad that I could still worship during our holiday.

The beautiful interior of the Baptist Church was a sight to behold.






R.T.
July, 2013
p.s. Rosie was happy that she was able to find her Mother-in-Law dress at Fox's after church!

Always so Much to See and Do in Central Park!

Shakespeare Garden, Central Park

As a first time visitor to New York City, one must find time to visit Central Park, my most favorite place in New York.

There are always so much to see and do in this gorgeous Park! I took my sister who was visiting New York for the first time to this beautiful park with breathtaking scenery.

Every time I come to visit, I always take time to stroll through this urban oasis,  consequently, I have been to Central Park numerous times over the past few years.

Because the park is so huge, occupying over eight hundred acres of land in downtown Manhattan,  it does not matter how many times I have visited the park, I always discover something I have not seen from my previous visits.

This time I visited a number of places which I was not aware of before: the Shakespeare Garden filled with windy paths and lined with rustic fences made of old tree branches. A quiet and peaceful place to read, mediate and just sit and chat with your pal.

Fences made with rustic tress branches create an old world charm in the  Shakespeare Garden

The other place we visited this time was the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace which were the focal features of the original plan for Central Park. The artist, inspired by the miracles in the bible about the pool of Bethesda created the fountain sculpture which was installed in 1873. 

Visitors to Central Park were entertained by performers by the Bethesda Fountain & Terrace

The fountain and the architecture surrounding it are regal and spectacular! The Bethesda Fountain  is huge and magnificent. It was also where the popular American sitcom "Friends" was filmed. This fountain scene could still be seen at the beginning of each episode of "Friends" and its re runs.

The beautiful scenery of Central Park has been captured in many Hollywood movies. For example, one of the scenes in "Rain Man" with Tom Cruise and Hoffman walking together in a park was also filmed on the ground of Central Park.

Musicians performing classical music under the stairs of the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace

A violinist plays music in a hola hoop

Visiting the Central Park is like treating your senses to a feast, visually and musically.


 Everywhere we walked,  we admired the colorful flowers and carefully manicured shrubs and gardens.

We also enjoyed the  many musicians serenading visitors with various genre of music while some performers entertained the young and old with tricks and stories.

 

There are always some unexpected  hidden scenery,  buildings and architecture to be discovered.

An interesting rustic European designed house on our way to the Shakespeare Garden.

Belvedere Tower, Central Park

The  Belvedere Tower - constructed in 1869 as a lookout for the new houses built in New York City.

Now it houses the New York Meteorological Observatory

 We were greeted by a very friendly ranger inside the main floor of the Belvedere Tower.

He explained to us about the history of the tower and provided us with a pair of binoculars for free to observe the turtles in the Turtle Pond below!

Horse drawn carriage and other modes of transportation in Central Park

And if you have $2.50 to spend, you could get a minute`s ride in one of the many horse drawn carriages or other modes of transportation in the park. 

The best part of our visit was renting a couple of bikes and riding it through Central Park with my Sis!

We got to see lots more places, did a bit of exercises and had a great time!

Central Park - An Urban Oasis

( The bike rental cost was not too bad. We rented our bikes at the Columbus Circle entrance  to the park ( 66th street) for $ 15.00 an hour. We wished we had more time for the two hour rental which was only $5.00 more.

 We should have rented it from Bike and Roll, a reputable company that would also have provided us with helmets free of charge. But we listened to one of the tricycle drivers who took us to a no name rental. We would not make that mistake again in the future.  )

There are tons of things to do in Central Park! And the admission to the park is FREE!!!!

I always have a fantastic time there.
I hope if you ever have a chance to visit New York City, you will find time to visit this lovely park!
The children will definitely enjoy it and so will the young at heart!

R.T.
Central Park, New York City
July,  2013