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2004-07-21 - 10:32 p.m. PAUL NEWMAN WAS HERE! Hey all. Yep, you read right, Paul Newman, the salad dressing king was here, live and in person last week. He was here with a bunch of fancy-schmancy donors to try and raise money for the Double H Ranch endowment, and raise money he did! (5 million bones, and counting!) Yes, Mr. Newman was here for the afternoon last week, but I did not get a chance to meet him. He is a man who does not like to draw attention to himself. When he comes to one of his summer camps, he comes to see the kids, to see camp in action, and to see what needs to be done. I did not want to take away from that and act silly or anything like that. The day he was here was crazy hectic though. They were using the opportunity to make a new promotional video of camp, so there were camera crews following him around. During lunch he came and sat at the table next to the Muskrat cabins (I dunno why, because the Muskrats are way cuter than the older boys, but oh well). I was about 10 feet away from them. Then in the afternoon my kids were doing the high ropes course, which is an interesting thing to watch. We are able to put children with cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophy, and other illnesses that make physical activity like climbing ropes difficult. However, with the magic of Double H Ranch, we make all of these great things happen, and kids who might normally have to sit on the sidelines for activities like this get to participate fully. It is an amazing thing to witness. I think Paul Newman agrees with my sentiment because he was watching our kids for a good 25 minutes or so, just staring up at them, with a huge smile on his face. At one point I walked directly behind him, but again, didn't want to bother him or take away from his observations and things like that. It was good he was here, good for the camp, and sort of exciting for us, too. If I had gotten a chance to speak with him personally I would have (of course) given a great shout out to the A-Squad (AmeriCorps) and also told him how I have grown to love his white cheddar popcorn, and I wish he would develop a low-fat version of it. Newman's Own White Cheddar Popcorn-- you should really try it. Camp is going well! Last week was my last session with the Muskrats. For our last 3 sessions here I will be with the 10-12 year old girls (bobcats). I think a change will be nice, and it will be different to experience camp with an older age group. I think these girls will have a better grasp of what camp is all about and I might be able to form some tighter bonds with them. When I was tutoring at Fairbanks Elementary in Sacramento during my senior year at UCD I really enjoyed the age group (6th grade) so the Bobcats and I should get along great! This last session I was put in charge of our "cabin night" with another fellow counselor. We decided to host an arts and crafts night, and made it space theme. The night before the event I put up an "invitation" from an alien named Zoink in our cabin. It said something about how he has seen the Muskrat Earthlings at camp, having fun, and they are such good campers. So Zoink decided to throw a party in their honor the next night where they would make t-shirts, make model rocketships, and eat moon dust! Then I cut out green footprints and put them all over the front hallway of the cabin, since Zoink had been there. IT was really fun when the kids woke up the next day, almost like Christmas. Some of them were really intrigued, saying thing like, "Zoink only has 3 toes!" But some of my other campers were more skeptical. Anyhow, that night we decorated the Arts and Crafts cabin with signs, swirly lights,black lights, christmas lights, and more zoink footprints. it was fun. When the kids came they did their t-shirts and rocket ships for about an hour. Then Zoink appeared! Zoink was really my cabin unit leader, Matt wearing a ridiculous outfit from teh costume room including green face paint, tin foil armbands, and a silver metallic space man cap. Before Zoink appeared, my camper Nick was looking out the window dissappointed saying, "I don't think Zoink is going to come, he's late." I replied, "I think Zoink is stuck in space traffic. You know it is rush hour on the moon right now." This explanation actually worked, and Nick was okay after that. All of a sudden, the lights dimmed and the space oddesy music blasted on the stereo. "Zoink" had snuck out the back door and ran around to the front, and appeared. Nick who had been so eager to see Zoink immediately ran away screaming and crying. Someone chased him though and he was okay. The Zoink visit ended up being hillarious. Matt had this strange canadian martian voice, and talked about himself in the third person. He was wearing the gloves we wear when we serve our kids food, to disguise his hands. One of the kids said, "Zoink why do you smell like plastic." Zoink replied, "Well, my Uncle is metal, My Aunt is rubber. Put them together, and out came Zoink!" The counselors were pretty much hysterically laughing the whole time. It was great fun. Zoink also spoke to the kids about the importance of showering and brusing their teeth. He warned them that if they didn't bathe reguarly, they would turn green like him. When it was time for Zoink to leave we did a blast-off countdown. When we reached zero, he opened to door, spread his arms out, and ran out of the building as if he was flying. All of our campers ran to the other window and anxiously looked out it to see where his rocket ship was. I guess you could call the night an out of this world success! haha. Everything else here is going great. The kids are awesome. It is strange not hanging out with my AmeriCorps team so much though. We don't even have to wear our uniforms out here, so we really don't feel like part of AmeriCoprs out here. Sometimes I almost forget, which is odd because I am so proud to be part of this program, serving others for 10 months. I am glad that after this project is done in 3 1/2 weeks I will still have my team to lean on, and we will still have one more adventure to experience together. I don't know what our next project will be. We received a visit yesterday from our unit leader, and he told us about the projects for the 4th round, but they haven't assigened any of them yet. They all sound great, even the local ones. We should find out where we are headed next within 2 weeks or so. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. I have loved it so much. The new experiences, learning things about myself, learing that I love construction work, working with these kids, seeing areas of these United States I never would have traveled to on my own... it has all been amazing. I hope I will be ready to find my own path in Novemeber when my time here is up. I hope I will be able to continue the wonderful friendships I have formed with my teamates (my family, really) and others back at Perry Point. It is difficult to put into words how greatly each of these people have touched my life in the short time I have known them, and what a blessing sharing this experience with them has been. Well, I am off to research teaching credential programs for my life after AmeriCorps! Hope all is well Wishing you Health and Happiness Shannon
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