Category Archives: Outreach

It’s NOT a Box! An evening with Thompson Schools and the Early Childhood Programs

Judy Tessier and her teaching gurus at Monroe Early Childhood Center passed the word along that ALL the early childhood centers in the Thompson School District were going to have a literacy night at the Conrad Ball Middle School cafeteria. She asked if Nick and the AiA team would like to experience it.

The theme would center around Antoinette Portis’ lovely book, Not a Box. The story involves a very creative young rabbit and the use of a cardboard box to make the most amazing experiences; driving cars, flying in space rockets, dousing fires, experimenting with robotics, and climbing Mt Everest! Most importantly, no naysayer could sway the young rabbit’s belief in what he/she was doing.

Nick read the story for the first time and decided he and the team should attend the event in ….. you guessed it, a BOX!

Nick donned blue bunny ears and the antics were on, but not before Judy met us at the Monroe Early Childhood Center Pirate Ship and offered Nick an eye patch and a pirate hat crafted by the scallywag deck hands.

Nick shared his spoils with all the kids!

Preschoolers at Literacy Night

There were boxes and games all over the cafeteria! What a fabulous literacy event for the children of Loveland. For more information on Thompson’s Early Childhood Education, click here.

Enroll your children in an experience of a young lifetime, bunny ears, boxes and all!

Posted in adventure, Awesome Advocate, Awesome in Action, Books, children, community events, family, Helping in Action - Book, learning, Local, Outreach, Schools, students

An Awesome Time Pumping up the Black Belt Candidates of Ripple Effect!

Hiya!

It may have a been a bit scary to see 50+ black belt candidates performing a powerful set
of karate skills as they slowly advanced upon us, but the experience was well worth it.

The Awesome in Action team was privileged to meet with these dedicated students and to present to them the “Why Try” speech, a motivational talk that helped encourage the participants to get through their challenging weekend full of testing to earn their black belts!

The warm-up exercises alone looked exhausting!!

Master Macy ensures the students are stretching properly prior to testing

Master Macy had the students balance mid-kick for a 50 count! “1 sir, 2 sir, 3 sir…”

Nick got to practice along with the students! He is hoping to earn his white belt soon with Ripple Effect.

In addition to Nick’s speech, the students did some of their form testing (Scroll down to videos to see some of their impressive techniques), and participated in a combat workshop. Their entire weeken was full of extraneous testing and physical activity. These are some resilient folks!

Cameron and Reece were visiting from Mile High Karate to participate in a combat workshop

Reece

Cameron

All geared up and practing…steer clear of these two tough kids!

John and Alletta Harres with their son, Jack

Many families train and attend Karate Classes together. The Harres family also came from Mile High Karate, an affiliate of Ripple Effect, in order to participate in the workshops and observe the testing process.