When I came to the office today, I had this note from Mike, our Director of Child Services waiting for me. Since he speaks of lots that’s going on around campus, I thought I’d share this with you.
20 Minutes at the Rec Center
On Saturday morning, I happened to find myself in one of those unique but fun 20 minutes in our rec center. As I was winding down my workout, a houseparent came into the workout room with one of the boys from his home. He was working with the student teaching him to properly lift weights. It was nice to see the mentoring going on and the student following the houseparent’s lead.
As I finished, I left the workout room, only to find that the Ambrose Home’s students waiting rambunctious to go to wresting practice. We have not had a wrestling program in a few years and it was their first practice. The kids and houseparents were waiting at the front door of the rec center as mini-buses moved around outside to pick up the students. The boys looked eager to get going to Chamberlain’s wrestling room, as we do not have a mat yet for our wresting program.
I then wandered back into the rec center gym where two houseparent we setting up and Archery course for the students. Today was the first day of training our students about how to safely shoot a bow and arrow. The staff, who recently went to be certified in archery training, were eagerly awaiting the student’s arrival. In talking with the staff, you could tell they were excited.
As I left the gym, I noticed two student reading books. Apparently these students were in trouble, and reading was part of their discipline. I asked what they were reading and one boy showed me the book Prince of Egypt. I told him he could give me an oral book report sometime. Both boys were also watching the archery range being set up with great interest. If this was discipline, they appeared to be having a good time.
As I was leaving the facility, the second of two rec center staff showed up. They we looking forward to a busy morning followed by an afternoon of bowling. As I exited the rec center building, the snow was falling heavily and piling up. It was surreal as I thought of all that was going on at the rec center and across campus on this cold and snowy, January day. It also made me thankful for the fact that we are fortunate in what we provide for our students.
Dear Fr. Styeve & Mike,
What a great post this was. We’re so impressed with the results of all the donations coming in. We’ll pray that you recieve the wrestling mats you need.
Wish we could provide them for you but, our budget doesn’t allow for such expenses.
We’re also happy to hear that the students are taking such great interests in out of curriculum activities.
God Bless you all at St. Joseph’s,
Nancy & Kenny
This was a very interesting post! It makes me feel like I’m almost there seeing it all with my own two eyes, even the snow falling outside! More of this sort of posts will always be very much welcome. Sounds like all is going well, too!