Thank You ORDA and VI Kids

The Olympic Authority has been awesome lately in helping us to provide our participants with new and fun activities. Most recently they have offered us a trip to whiteface mountain and they allowed our visually impaired group to skate for free on the olympic oval under the lights. The generous workers at the bobsled run allowed us access for free to their park as well. Having these opportunities made the week long event with these kids simply amazing. Students left with such comments as "memories for a lifetime", "I can't wait to take these friendships further", and "I love this place so much, I can't believe I have to wait so long to come back again". It's because of the time and the awesome experiences we have with them that they feel loved and in return we feel the same. As tears fell from their eyes leaving us today, we look forward to this summer when they return and we look forward to new and exciting ways to build strong relationships with both the Visually Impaired kids as well as the community. Thank You again ORDA for playing a big role in that. Also, we would like to thank Bowlwinkles for allowing us to go bowling at an extremely low cost and the Toboggan Chute on Mirror Lake for letting us go sledding for the low price of a plate of brownies :) The kids had the time of their lives this week and so did the staff :) Below you can see a few pictures of the kids doing a few activities as well as a short video clip of the first ever Visually Impaired/Blind Broomball game!!! Blaise is also playing his violin for us in the picture below. In a related note, he raised over 200 dollars for our program just by simply playing. Great Job Blaise! The group of four below is the chair activity and the boys held on to this for a new record of 3 mins and 4 secs!!! Yeah Boys!!! All in all it was a fantastic week and these young men and women will be missed. Remember Olivia and the rest of you, "It's not goodbye, it's only until next time".

(Off to the right you can see some of our kids watching or listening to the bobsled fly by)

(Chair Activity...Blaise, Olivia ;) hahaha, Matt, and Rachel)

(The ladies man himself (Blaise) and his instrument of choice)

(First ever Visually Impaired/Blind Broomball Game)

*This game was extremely successful and so much fun. It ended with some bumps and bruises but I think everyone would agree that they were well worth it*