The Power of Partnership!

It is always amazing to see the power of many hands and minds working together. I know that it can be more gratifying to pretend to think that one person is capable of doing great things but this is far from real life. This last Saturday I had 40 friends help put together an Easter Party at our neighborhood park. It is always interesting to watch the power of synergism in action.

I know that it is key to have something to do for everyone that comes to one of our events whether that is painting a house of a low income senior, helping the homeless in our downtown or doing an event for kids, teens and families at our park. This Saturday we had a variety of activities that kept everyone fairly busy for a few hours. We had our cooking crew that helped bbq 300 hot dogs, stuff them into buns, wrap them with foil and then with another team actually serve our kids, teens and families along with chips and salsa, orange slices, cookies and bottled water.

A good portion of our teen helpers oversaw our craft and face painting tables. We had a huge line up for our face painters. It was so much fun watching our little kids get painted as a tiger or cat or some rather unusual face design. We also had another group making bracelets, coloring pictures and in a totally separate area we had our little, little kids actually decorate hardboiled eggs.  What was a great gift was one of our schools involved had stuffed 1600 plastic eggs with candy. We had our teens scatter these eggs all around the backside of the rec center. It was so much fun to watch the little kids scramble to get the eggs to fill their baskets. I was amazed to see the look on a few of the kid’s faces when they found the ‘golden’ egg. I knew we should have put a dollar in each of these eggs.

After the little kids had their fair chance to gather eggs we unleashed the bigger kids. It wasn’t too long before the majority of the eggs were now in plastic bags or Easter baskets. Our team that oversaw the filling of the plastic eggs brought extra candy to make sure everyone got their fair share. I was so impressed with how each of the different groups helping were able to make our Easter party a great success.

We also had a sumo wrestler game that was overseen by the staff of Sir Bounce A lot. This was a huge hit for the entire party. We had all sizes and ages of participants. It was so much fun to watch everyone bounce off each other and then fall to the ground and not be able to get up without help from the staff. It was a blast to watch two of the ladies who are staff with the rec center get into the ring and attempt to push each other over. The best venue of the day was watching one of our larger teens take on one of the bigger adults. I think that Jalil truly believed that he could knock out this football player sized dad.

The generosity of many and the helping hands of many made our Easter party a lot of fun and really not a whole lot of work for anyone including my Anne and myself. I was pleased that a couple hundred kids had a fun time and saw what can happen when the community comes together. I’m so proud of my volunteers and the city’s park and rec staff for making my pre-Easter Saturday a day that will be remembered!