Our expansion from two to four schools has been fun and challenging. We hunt and gather supplies, deliver and set up snacks, projects, and anything else needed. It has been quite a ride these first couple of months.
October brings the Cardboard Challenge. Our students have participated for 6 years. We show the short film Caine’s Arcade to introduce them to the possibilities of their imaginations.
This year, we had close to 250 children opening their minds to creating games, buildings, sculptures… Alameda had a lot of very excited children. Some worked in groups, others individually.
Hazel and I set out to find enough cardboard to satisfy a lot of children. We saved all boxes from our own homes (thanks goodness for Amazon), our snack store Cash n Carry was a great resource, the four schools and friends. I even took boxes from a local shoe store, one of the women working was unloading new shoes out of large boxes and was thrilled when I asked for them. She didn’t have to break them down or haul them out to the recycle bin. It is pretty amazing when one puts out a call for cardboard. People are very happy to see the many boxes that come into their homes be put to good use.
At each school, we set up a time to share our creations. At Paden, I brought out the games to be played during the last recess of the day. The Paden students were excited to share their games with their classmates. At NEA, Maya Lin and Otis, we invited the other after school programs to play with us. Each school had prizes to give out. The other after school program at Otis is looking forward to being invited to join us for our next adventure.
Here are some of the photos.