A sample entry from
Tristan's Summer Diary

- Wednesday, July 11, 2001

Xcel Summer has opened without a hitch. Five days in and the day campers are having a blast. So far, we're averaging between 30 and 35 kids a day. The schedule is set, and each activity has been well received. The group club teams picked names, a place for lunch has been settled, and the all important pool permit arrived the other day.

Each week of programming revolves around a different theme. Our first theme, Harmony, sparked discussions on kindness, conflict resolution, and racism. The kids created a chart where they wrote nice things that they had done for others recently. Next week's "Health and Nutrition" theme promises to be a real eye opener for many of the children and staff alike.

At registration, each child chose whether to take a drama or dance class during the program. I'm not much into dancing, but from the noise that emanates from the Game Room while I'm with the drama kids in Arts and Crafts, I would guess the dancers are learning "step," and enjoying every minute. Enid and Mei are doing a terrific job; can't wait to see the finished product in a few weeks.

In arts and crafts, the kids learned how to mix acrylic paints to obtain desired hues and tones this week and used their newly discovered knowledge to create collages on peace and harmony. What colors they mixed and collages they created! Hopefully we'll be able to capture some of the images for our web-readers and post them online in a few weeks.

Today was our first official field trip of the summer. We'll be visiting a different museum every Wednesday through the end of August. Today we went to the Cloisters, an old nunnery that is now a Medieval Museum. Monday, we took an unofficial field trip to a block party on 5th street where the kids played carnival games and watched a puppet show.

Group Club is off to a blazing start. The summer teams are "The Pythons," led by David and Rachel, and "The Titans," led by Luis, a.k.a. Lou-box. These teams are not to be confused with the two reading teams, however, "The Book Killerz," and "The B-Box Destroyers." (Ironic that the kids picked such violent names - "Killerz" and "Destroyers" - during Harmony Week; this will surely come up again in a future group dialogue.) Group club teams compete for points and prizes throughout the program and will be rewarded for their efforts in the end.

- By Tristan Brooks

Tristan first volunteered at Xcel in 1996 at the age of 13. She has since graduated high school and enrolled as a creative writing student at The New School in August 2001. After excelling as a college freshman, she took a year off to particpate in The Master's Commission based out of Spokanne, Washington. She will return to college in Fall 2003.

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