All finished!

Well, I can't believe it, but my current project with In the Arena is now complete! Three weeks sure goes by quickly. 

Friday I spent my last few hours at the Frisoli Youth Center.  Staff members Francis, Sarah, Stephanie and Deryl were all very helpful and enthusiastic about spreading the game of lacrosse, and I think together we got some girls excited about it! They were very happy to know that Shady Hill School (in Cambridge) is permanently donating some of the sticks we borrowed to ITA, so Amory is nicely going to pass those on to Frisoli so the kids can continue to play!  Many thanks to the Center and to all the girls for a great few weeks.

Saturday brought a fun and special event.  The Boston Cannons (the professional Major League Lacrosse team in Boston) generously donated 30 tickets to ITA so that the kids we have been working with could be exposed to the highest level of lacrosse.  The tickets were used by families both from Gately and from West Cambridge, and I hope that they thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience!  We greatly appreciate the Cannons' kindness!

Today, Monday, was my final session at the West Cambridge Youth and Community Center.  It was truly a great finale.  The weather held up nicely for us as it wasn't quite as hot as it has been, and both groups seemed to have a lot of fun.  I was particularly proud of my second group's game of steal the bacon-- they had improved very much in all aspects of the game (ground balls, defense, shooting and some passing!!)!  We still enjoyed some water balloons, used both with the sticks and recreationally, at the end of each hour.  The kids and staff members at West Cambridge made me a beautiful card as well which I absolutely loved.  I was truly touched by it, so thank you to all of you :-).  Chanelle and Robin were amazing staffers from week to week and helped the kids and me have fun!

Despite the short length of my project, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with both ITA and all three of the great youth centers in Cambridge.  I feel as if I learned a lot and was challenged by the situation, but also had a lot of fun getting to know some of the kids and staff members.  I hope that everyone had  a lot of fun and that some of the kids will stick with the game-- I certainly saw some stars in the making! 

Many, many thanks to all who were involved and helped this happen.

I finally got a few photos of my groups and even got a little footage of a water balloon toss today!  Look for those in the next few days.