Monday, January 30, 2012

Giving Back

Out & About offers participants a chance to give back to their community through Stepping Stones.  The program includes opportunities to volunteer in the kitchen at the Boulder Homeless Shelter, cleaning up local parks, making cat toys and dog biscuits to donate to local Humane Societies and more!  Also several times over the last couple months these groups have collaborated with an organization called A Soldier’s Wish List.  A Soldier’s Wish List is a non-profit organization established to support American troops serving in combat zones around the world in order to let them know how grateful we are for what they do on a daily basis.  They ask for care package donations which include the items most requested by troops like toiletries, batteries, socks, playing cards and homemade sweets & snacks.  Out & About’s Stepping Stones programs chose to help out the troops by baking cookies and writing cards!  These activities are a great opportunity for our participants to practice their cooking skills (following a recipe, measuring and mixing ingredients, using an oven safely, etc).  Making the care packages also gives Out & About’s participants an opportunity to help others and gain a broader perspective of the world.  One of the participants in Stepping Stones was creating a card after baking a batch of cookies when she stated her uncle was in the Army.  She said to her instructor that she wished either he or someone like him could receive the cookies and card she had made! Here is a picture of some of the kiddos with our finished product.


Monday, January 23, 2012

Winter Fun

We have had such a mild winter this year. While it has been nice to not be freezing, we have been missing out on some fun winter activities. Over the Holiday break we ventured up to Nederland so we could fit in some sledding. It was a nice sunny day, and everyone really seemed to have fun!
Here is a picture of Jessa and Scott before taking off down the hill. Jessa really seemed to enjoy sledding as she was laughing the entire time and kept asking to go more! Hopefully we can get some more winter activities in before the spring!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Transitions

Hello and welcome to the Children's Blog for Out & About! Each week I will be writing a little blurb about what our kids and program are up to, with pictures of us in action. Monthly I will be spotlighting one of our employees to let you get a chance to know them better.

As the new year began, one of our kids transitioned to the Adult Program at O&A. I would like to take this opportunity to let Autumn know how proud we are of her, and how much joy she brought to O&A children's program over the years. We know she will fit right in with the Adult Program!
 This is a picture of Autumn during our 'Halloween Bowling'. Her laugh and smile are so contagious!