The Summer Blog by Karen

So Hong is gone and I am taking over the blog.... she did such a great job - I am a little nervous about following in her footsteps!   

Summer has finally arrived in Prince George and our summer programs are in full swing.  YMCA staff is so great with all the kids I really admire their energy, patience and committment to making sure each child has a great time.    Every parent should feel very confident about leaving their children in our care!       We make sure we return them home at the end of the day tired but happy from a day of enjoying the great outdoors!

On that note, an interesting study was just released about the links between TV time and waistline size in children.  It was conducted by the Universite de Montreal and the St-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital and has been tracking the same 1300 children since 1998.   Increased waist size leads to health problems and lack of physical prowess.   When I compare my childhood activities to those of kids today, we definitley were outside more often.  However, saying that we only had four tv channels and video games were just something you played at an arcade!   Not really fair to compare?    More to come on this...

One more thing

Me last night packing for New York

I'm so excited! 

Have a great summer everyone.

Don't forget to still follow up on the pgymca blog. There will be guest posts, and more about different summer programming. Lets keep in touch.

And again with my theme...

Until next time...

So tomorrow is my last day as a pgymca intern!

On Tuesday I leave for New York and I am spending the summer road tripping down the East coast. I’m very excited! I’m going to be travelling with Graham, his sister, and her husband. We will be spending the money we don’t have, seeing things we never thought we never would see, and hopefully having the times of our lives. I’ll share my experience when I get back.

My internship has been an amazing. I have learned so much, met such wonderful people, and I am leaving with an experience I won’t forget.

I want to say THANK YOU to my mentor Karen for everything: the opportunity, the experience, the flexibility, and everything that I learned. Thank you to Faydra, my weekly boot camp instructor and extended mentor. And to Tara for the things you’ve taught me, sharing the social media bug, and chatting about weddings. I’m going to miss all of you!!

Also thank you to everyone who has been following the blog. I have been sharing my experiences for the last 4 months, and as a result I hold this blog very close to my heart. I hope by sharing my thoughts, miseries, laughs, and experiences I was able connect and relate. If my blog had an underlying theme it would be motivation.

Until next time…

New Aiyansh: Healthy Kids and Healthy Communities

We’re back! And Wow what an amazing trip. I won’t be able to communicate the full extent of everything on the trip through a post, but luckily I’m diligently working on a video encapsulating our 4 day trip into 5 minutes.  It will be finished on Friday (my last day as an intern!!).

Here is a short preview of our trip through pictures...

We travelled in a bus like this.      

And drove until we saw this 

and this

We visited the Nisga'a Museum ...

 and canoed like this.

 We arrived at the New Aiyansh YMCA and were awestruck by this.

We were welcomed with a traditional feast like this.

(Sea lion, herring eggs, oligans, salmon and all)

 And received beautiful cedar head dresses like this.

The next day we set up for Healthy Kids Day like this,

 and celebrated healthy communities and families with activities like this.

 We met so many amazing, adorable, gracious, and cute children like this.

We left exhausted, but so happy and grateful like this

Great Trip!!

Tuesday Motivation

Happy Belated Birthday Canada

Blog Birthday Celebration! Got this goodie from the 125 blog. 

Oh Robin Sparkles