Community Connectivness Event

To celebrate the reopening of the Thompson Community Centre I was invited to run an origami booth in the first week of September! Personally, this was really exciting for me as I hadn't taught origami in person for a long time :). I was a bit nervous as I would be leading groups of children and parents and I wasn't sure how to gauge how the event would go.

All I had brought with me was a few handfuls of candy, origami paper, packets on how to make penguins and winged hearts, and some printed instructions.

Unfortunately on the day of, the weather was a bit windy so the signs I had made beforehand didn't really work and I had to use like a lot of rocks to hold things down.

Plus as soon as the kids started to come I got really anxious. As they began to swarm around my booth, I realized that I was the only one who understood how to do origami. There was as an assistant I brought to assist me, but she ended up being just as confused as the children. It was also really devastating but I realized the instruction sheets I had printed off weren't as good as I thought they were. Luckily, their excitement eventually died down and I soon was able to do one on ones with the kids. I came to really enjoy their initial curiosity and enjoyment when folding the penguins and it was really sweet how they would go up to their parents to show them what they made :).

When the evening came, a lot of the children went home so I enjoyed the ending festivities and music. Although a few stragglers appeared like a daughter and father on a bike ride and a few stray kids that approached my booth to snatch away handfuls of candy, all eventually died down. I felt a bit lonely but I had the chance to talk to Suzie and Ethan as I cleaned up my booth. As I watched the sunrise, I got to slowly pack up my things, thinking next about where to go with Project Bloom.

Picture of my team and Suzie

Image of my booth

Photo of the simple kits