There are three weeks in the school calendar that are dedicated to work experience, one of these weeks we are should to do a week of community service. I spent this week, the 6th to the 10th of March, working alongside the volunteers at Bray Lakers. Bray Lakers is a community-based sports, social and recreation club for children and adults with an intellectual disability. The club provides a wide range of sporting and educational services such as golf, swimming, arts and crafts, music and much more.
I signed up to do a week of community service with Bray Lakers in autumn last year. Over the past few months I have heard lots of positive feedback from my friends, who helped out at Bray Lakers as part of their Gaisce Community Service. For example a group of them volunteered to help out with the football training on Monday nights for 13 weeks, others went bowling with them every week. To to be honest I wasn't certain what to expect of my week at Bray Lakers, and I must say I was a bit sceptical and slightly worried about it. I felt a little unprepared for the experiences I was going to have, but nonetheless I walked into the Bray Lakers building bright and early on Monday morning with a determined smile in my face!
My week of community service with Bray Lakers was more fun and enjoyable than I could have hoped for! The members and volunteers were all extremely friendly, and the range of activities I participated in were broad and each activity was thoroughly enjoyable, at times challenging but mostly fun and filled with laughter! One of my favourite activities was the cookery class. This week the menu was called ‘Back to the 80s’ and it consisted of: Chicken Maryland, homemade fries and fried pineapple and banana with crème fraiche! The members in this group were all very capable and talented cooks, one of them even worked at McDonald’s part-time! I was looking forward to this class all week as I adore cooking new things, and I had never made anything on the menu before. My main job was to assist the people with cutting and peeling potatoes, or slicing chicken, washing up and keeping an eye on the frying chicken to ensure it didn’t burn and of course to taste the food! While we cooked I got the chance to get to know some of the people better, and once I mentioned I was from Tipperary they all burst into song, singing ‘It’s a long way to Tipperary’! The dishes we made turned out great and were bursting with flavour! I will definitely try and recreate this dish at home.
Below is a picture of Chicken Maryland!
Another activity I really enjoyed was art and crafts. The adult group were making paper machée hot-air balloons, which I thought was a very innovative and interesting project. They had already created the paper-machée balloons and this week it was time to paint them (one of the members said she had been waiting to paint it for weeks!). I was paired with a lovely lady, and together we painted her balloon. We decided to paint it the colours of the rainbow, so I carefully drew seven horizontal lines at equal intervals across the balloon, as a guideline for each colour. However without hesitating she painted the entire balloon red within 3 minutes (apparently red for Liverpool, her favourite football team!). So we changed the plan and made a red balloon with yellow and blue dots. With the Junior Arts and Crafts we made paper airplanes, and at the end of the session we did a competition. The plane I made with a young boy, came second, and he was delighted! I made some new friends discovered many new ideas for arts and crafts that I could maybe do in my own time, or do with children that I babysit!
A paper machée balloon, the members at work, a tree we decorated on the wall, and paper airplanes!
We were very lucky as we had extraordinarily good weather throughout the week. I definitely made the most of it by going out to the sea front with Jack Kennedy and Jack Finnegan for lunch almost everyday!
In addition a couple of the activities were not done at the Bray Lakers campus, but rather involved exercise outside. I volunteered to help out with two such activities, one called ‘Keep Fit’ which involved a 40 minute walk from the Bray Lakers campus to the pier in Bray and back. The purpose of this activity was to keep its members fit and healthy. So, I stepped outside onto the hot tarmac and was greeted by a vast and consuming saphire blue sky with a bossy sun shooing away the clouds. I felt very happy in that moment to be surrounded my kind people, and at this point many familiar faces, and having my feet carry me towards the sea which had sunlight surfing on the low waves. I was surprised at the speed in which they walked, I found myself dropping behind a few times and having to quickly catch up with the group! Another activity which involved being outside was called ‘Lady's Health and Lifestyle’. Before we ventured outside, each person was weighed and the result would be written into their notebook which compared their weight on a weekly basis. It was lovely to see how excited they all got when they were told they were doing a good job and losing weight! This time we walked along the seafront in Bray, and again it was a glorious afternoon. I noticed how some people would look at the ladies differently or they would move, ever so slightly, away from them, simply because they were a bit different. This saddened me a bit, and made me realize that I might have been that person silently judging them. I was then very glad that I was doing this for my community service as it has opened my eyes and made me more accepting and caring.
I think my favourite activity was ‘Music and Song’! This was an activity that everyone could enjoy, and it was heart-lifting to see so many genuine smiles and happy faces in the room. This activity involved lots of dancing and singing to classic songs such as songs by artists like Elton John, Madonna, Michael Jackson and many many more! Each member got the opportunity to do a karaoke, and honestly most of them did (and some were exceptionally good singers!). The two Jacks and me all got ourselves some instruments and banged away on them to the rhythm of the songs (I don’t think we were very synchronized, but we were having fun!), we even danced with a few people! After almost everyone had done a solo, they asked if one of us would do a solo too. I exchanged one look with both Jacks and understood there was no way they were singing a solo, so eventually I volunteered. I sang ‘Tell Him’ by Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand; I sang this song for the music festival earlier this school year. I was very nervous but the members all gave me encouraging smiles and clapped along to the song, and I soon loosened up and enjoyed the experience! Since this was the last activity of the week, I knew almost everyone present and it amazed me how much one can do in week. I got to know almost all the members and volunteers at Bray Lakers, I have become good friends with Jack Kennedy and Jack Finnegan, I have discovered how to cook new dishes and make new crafts, I learned a lot about dealing with people who have disabilities, and I have become more patient and accepting.
I have only told you about a few of the interesting activities I participated in, there were many more such as drumming, table tennis (which I lost badly!), dancing and many more; however I think I have said enough to give you an idea of what I did during my week at Bray Lakers. I would definitely recommend it to others who are searching for something to do for community service, at it is a great experience and I can guarantee you will have a lot of fun!
A beautiful sunrise in Bray!