Weekly Activism Log w/e 10/27

UCF DAYS was a big success.
Not only did the girls have fun, I believe that they also learned a few things that they didn't think they could do. In our discussion portion after the activities the girls shared some of their feelings and thoughts of the day. What really stood out was the blindfold challenge, they spoke of heighten hearing senses taking over to hear their big and follow the directions they were giving. They also learned trust that their big's were not going to let something happen to them while being blindfolded. But then of the flip side of that activity we found that a few of the little's took advantage of their big's by directing them into trees and waving palm branches in their path in order to scare them. Everyone had a good laugh. They also discussed the challenge of shipwreck and not falling into shark infested waters while needing to trust their teammates to keep them on the overturned boat. I helped run the Body Spelling activity and found it very interesting how the different groups achieved the goals of spelling different words. One group stood spelling their words while the other two groups laid on the ground to spell their words. This challenge was carried out using no verbal communication, it was interesting to see a little take control of the group and show them were to go and how to shape their body to form certain letters. This also included one little dragging others into position until being told they couldn't break each other.

All said and done this was a great day for me and the YWLP organization. I am really looking forward to our next event during alumni weekend. The body appreciation workshop will be able to express positive aspects or functions of their bodies. Also they will be able to walk away with the ability to continue the conversations about body appreciation with their friends and family.

As a group we will be meeting this week to debrief on the event and continue to develop the activities for the workshop that we will be hosting for these girls, on Nov 11th. We now have a better understanding of who these girls are and what the are capable of doing and are eager to incorporate their abilities into the activities.