Mar
2
James Bay Community School Centre
By Darcy Topinka
Yes, it's true. Spring break this March is an entire two weeks, March 8th to 19th. Families throughout the Greater Victoria School District will no doubt be looking for some meaningful activities to challenge and entertain their children. Should parents feel a bit overwhelmed around what to do with all that energy bouncing around the home, might I suggest the following: check out the various municipal recreation facilities, community centres, the YMCA, local churches, boys and Girls club, the University of Victoria, as many organizations have added programs and camps to their regular line up of programming. The city of Victoria offers a subsidized program called Leisure Involvement for Everyone known more simply as the Life Program. Applications can be picked up at any community centre or City of Victoria recreation facilities. Kid Sport is another excellent organization that offers assistance to low income families to subsidize sport and recreation pursuits for children. Remember there are many free outdoor recreation experiences in this wonderful city of ours, and yes I know it sounds a bit cliché but, take a moment to smell the flowers, walk on the beach, dig in the dirt for bugs, or think about growing something. It's spring, a time to boost your vitamin D levels, shake the cob webs out of your head. Celebrate spring. It's a great reason to turn off the television, the computer, and the video games.
The school's recycling project has taken off in a big way, all the students and staff have focused on how we process our recyclables. Currently in the works are new ideas on how to reduce our paper and energy consumption. Our goal is to launch a few new measures to limit our consumption of overall energy. All the students need to be congratulated on their green efforts, and for the exceptional example they are showing the adults in our building and our community. Mrs. Frazer and Mrs. Mac Donald's class were the first recipients of the golden garbage can award recognizing excellence in not putting recyclable items into their garbage can!
I celebrated a birthday recently; I am now 17,155 days old. In a show of support, the Community Centre staff decided to decorate my car inside and out with a multitude of balloons. That's right, noticeably large yellow, smiley-faced, helium balloons. My co-workers' cheeky birthday prank was a light-hearted gesture to ensure that I be reminded of the passing of "yet another year," and, of course unintentionally, I was reminded that I am getting to be that age where we as older adults would rather ignore the passing of "yet another year. "
I paused for a moment. What to do with 25 balloons attached to my wiper blades. The solution to my transportation problem was obvious. I marched into Wonder Club, which is home to our kindergarten and grade one after-school care program. Within seconds, I had disrupted the flow of activity in the room. I was swarmed by squeals of delight, wide eyes, and out stretched hands. Every chin stretched upward, drawn by the magic of the large smiley-faced, yellow balloons. For those of you thinking balloons are passé or a waste of money, I can say with confidence you are wrong. With arms and hands grasping and pawing at the air and small feet trying to leave the ground, the swarm began to close in. I panicked for a second, thinking what if I run out of balloons! Please, let there be enough for everyone I thought. It's just not cool making 5 year olds cry.
In life, sometimes things just work out, and this was one of those occasions. Fortunately, I had enough balloons for every child. My birthday gift that day came in the form of an experience, a sequence of events, set in motion by the fantastic group of people I have the pleasure of working with; their actions brought an awesome conclusion to my work day. I was part of something pretty great that day, something simple yet meaningful. I guess I was most surprised because I unintentionally did something short of heroic for some little people. Just a tiny glimpse of what Superman feels like every minute of every day. I was just trying to pawn off balloons that would never fit into my small car. I was reminded by this experience that simple actions can sometimes yield pretty big results. The effort required to bring a smile to a child's face, is, well, let's just say it can be effortless. We all have the power to easily generate a smile, even when it might not be our intention.
Our kids in James Bay are pretty special. They deserve to smile many times everyday. Here's hoping that you stumble onto one of those occasions where you accidentally bring a smile to a child's face. It's a pretty remarkable feeling.