Every day our staff journal about the days activities. It’s a time to reflect on who they met, what they learned and how the day went. We posted excerpts from a few of the staff earlier this summer. Here are a few more excerpts: From Andy: When I did pond I had an awesome experience. There have been some days where the pond has been dead and it’s been hard for the kids to catch frogs. So mark and I decided to go around the pond and find frogs, but we weren’t finding any and as we turned to go back this little girl spotted a turtle and caught it. I was really amazed because I have been telling kids they can catch frogs and turtles. But no one ever catches turtles so this was big.  I was amazed. That just made the day awesome.

From LizMary: This is my sixth year here at Farrington. I was introduced to the program by Kelley Mowers, my art teacher in middle school at the King Open School. I first came to Farrington as a field trip in the seventh grade. We made masks here and she gave us an animal tour. I was in the art room one day at the King Open school painting my mask and Kelley came up to me and asked, “Would you like to volunteer at Farrington?” When she asked, my mindset was on the thought of being around nature. I didn’t know if I wanted to volunteer because at the time I didn’t like being in the woods or being around bugs. I was terrified. What was my answer? “Yes. I would love to work there.” She gave me papers for my parents to sign right away. Once they were assigned, it was official. I came with three others, Andy, Carlos, and Anthony. We were all best friends so it made things more comfortable. Kelley would take us on hikes and expose us to nature and would give us better knowledge of the environment and global warming. She would show us a movie about it, take us to the library to research the topic, and read a book to us. As the years went by, I started to become more comfortable with my surroundings here at Farrington. We went on numerous hikes through the woods and took trips to the pond. I was a junior counselor up until this year. I learned how to lead the activities such as art, pond, hike, animals, sports, and the garden from Kelley and the senior counselors at the time. As I got older, I absorbed those teaching skills and started to lead the activities myself as a junior counselor and became comfortable around the kids. Being here at Farrington has helped improve my teaching skills and my communication skills. It has also given me a ton of knowledge on nature and the environment we live in today. I grew up at Farrington and I’m proud. I am thankful to have gone through this experience.

From Latia: There was a camp that attended called Orchard Boys & Girls Club; I believe it was their first time visiting Farrington.  They all seemed amazed with all the activities we had for them to enjoy.  I was doing the animals group with about 2 other, and there was this one kid that was scared of the animals but trying so hard to overcome his fear.   We were in the goats and sheep pen where we let the children interact with the animals and feed them, the kid would walk up to one of the goats with a leaf to feed it and as soon as the goat would step forward to eat the kid would “run for his life” behind one of the staff members.  It was really funny because he continued to do the same thing for about 15 minutes, but he still seemed determined to feed the animals.  Throughout the whole time he continued to have a big grin on his face and laughing while behind the staff.  Before we left the pen he place the leaf on the floor and one of the goats ate it, at that point he seemed somewhat accomplished.