week 5 a wrap!!

Hey it’s Damani, back again with another blog. It’s week five and summer has been great so far with the gang. But the kids are why I am here. I want to make sure the kids are having fun, and I can tell you the kids at Black Creek are definitely having fun. They always smile and the only time they're sad is when they're leaving us. The kids also love when we take them to the water to catch minnows or crabs and shrimp with the nets. The kids gave me a nickname they called me Amani because one-day last week Vanessa put two ponytails in my hair and that caught everyone’s attention while we were playing Evil Scientist. A couple of the kids at Blacks Creek grew on me and became my favorites, but at the same time all the kids are my favorite. They love to play Gaga Ball or Evil Scientist and each time we play it’s always fun, the kids are mad funny when they play, the boys are always going at it and the girls are trying to beat everybody no matter who it is and that is what makes the game so fun to play. The kids are the reason I work here, I want to make sure the kids are learning and also having fun.

catching sea creatures with a net

Playing our favorite game, Gaga ball

     The one thing that used to be hard for me was to communicate with people the same age as me or close to my age. But last summer I overcame that fear. The only reason why I’m not scared anymore was that I started talking to people last year, my first year at Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, and now I’m always talking to everybody. So working here helped to get rid of my fear because last year I did not know anybody here so I was mad shy. It took some time for me to talk to them, but this year I was immediately talking to all the new people. The new SHE/ LHE’s are good this year; they're all different, they have different personalities, but they're all funny and cool people to be around. You are able to talk to anybody here and feel fine if you've been talking to them for a while like this is a safe environment here. What I learned from this job is that you can not be scared to do anything here and also just to be you.

The black's creek squad 

Damani out, bye guys

A Claw-some Summer with the Blacks Creek Crew

Hello!
     This week was another fantastic week of programming! We spend Monday through Thursday morning at Blacks Creek, two afternoons at Curley Community Center, and one afternoon at Atlantic Wharf. My team did a terrific job with the programming, staying flexible to weather and scheduling changes.

Teaching our campers about green crabs and the classification of invasive species.

     One of the best parts of the camp that we work with is the variety of campers that we have. We have a total of four sessions: 9-10:30 Monday/Wednesday, 10:30-12:00 Monday/Wednesday, 9-10:30 Tuesday/Thursday, and 10:30-12:00 Tuesday/Thursday. Each camper has their own personality, but each session has also formed an identity that is distinct from the others. Our 10:30-12:00 Tuesday/Thursday group generally LOVES exploring the water. They have found the most horseshoe crabs and will often choose to stay in the water over playing a game. Conversely, our 9-10:30 Monday/Wednesday group is all about the games and while they enjoy the water they are always sad if going exploring in the water means ending a game.

Our campers exploring the water in search of minnows, shrimp, and crabs.

     Almost every day of the summer thus far, the team I work with has consisted of one college student LHE, Maggie, and three high school student JPAs, Aidan, Che, and Damani. It has been great to have a small group that spends so much time together, as we’ve really gotten to form a group dynamic and get to know one another. My JPAs get along great and are always a riot when they start to riff on each other. They love playing games and do a great job of striking a balance between playing with our campers and making sure that they are also having fun and feel engaged in what we do. Maggie is in a hard position, as she is the only LHE, and does a wonderful job of finding the balance of being a friend to all of us while also maintaining a position with authority. She is constantly willing to step up and lead camp if I ever need to take care of something, whether it be an upset kid or something administrative, and does a great job of “keeping it real” with our JPAs. Overall I think we make a great group and I am truly excited to see each of them every day.

Our Blacks Creek Team thus far this summer:
(L to R) Aidan, Damani, Che, and Maggie

     My favorite part of the summer has been watching and helping to guide the JPAs as they become more comfortable working with kids. They each have a lot of empathy and high energy with kids, which is an incredible place to start. However, there are some parts of teaching and keeping kids safe and positive that are not always intuitive. At the beginning of the summer, if a camper would minorly hurt themselves or be upset because they lost a game, our JPAs would spring into action, trying to do all they could to dote on the kid’s needs. However, as almost any parent or teacher would tell you, it is often the best course of action to briefly make a kid feel heard in their sorrow and then quickly help them move on and distract them with something else. They will often be feeling better sooner if you can get them re-engaged in the game or talk about something else. It has been awesome to watch the JPAs grow in their ability to read a situation and tell what course of action will best help a camper to feel better. I have been doing environmental education for over two years now, but this is the first job where I truly feel that helping someone else teach kids is the most rewarding part. I feel a swell of pride each time my staff navigates a new challenge with a camper.

My favorite find of the week:
a baby horseshoe crab molt in one of our camper's hands!

Catch you after what is sure to be another Crab-u-lous week!
Tessa

We found a horseshoe crab!

Welcome back blog readers!

     This week started out strong with a rare Horseshoe crab encounter, my first time ever seeing one alive. At first we thought the crab was a rock, but when it started moving we quickly scooped it up and brought it over to the touch tank. The crab was roughly the size of a dinner plate but with more of a pointed oval shape ending in a long, straight tail. As Eric held the crab at a full arm's length, some sort of sticky, viscous, black sludge dripped from the crab's back. There was so much sludge that the water in the touch tank immediately clouded up with the addition of the horseshoe crab. I still don't know what the... residue was, but I'm just glad I wasn't the one holding the crab. Apart from the obvious facts, nobody really knew much about horseshoe crabs, so the next paragraph is devoted to the research I conducted after work.

Briana and Ariagnna with the horseshoe crab

Helping the kids hold crabs. I'm in the white hat

       

     Despite masquerading as crustaceans, horseshoe crabs are actually arthropods, meaning that they are invertebrates with exoskeletons, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. It also means that they are more closely related to spiders and scorpions then they are to crabs (interesting note: horseshoe crabs are the closest living relatives to an extinct species of water scorpion). They are considered as living fossils due to the longevity of the species and lack of close relatives, genealogically speaking. Horseshoe crabs have NINE EYES. Yeah. Nine. They also swim upside-down, and have two eyes on their underside so make it easier. Honestly, these things belong on a different planet. As a last fun fact, horseshoe crab blood is used medicinally to test for bacterial infections.

Diagram of eye locations

Underbelly of a horseshoe crab

     Wednesday we visited Curley Community Center at Carson Beach, which was my first time going to a public beach in Boston. As we walked out of the beach building and onto the sand, we were greeted by more than a dozen wild, jumping, crazy kids. After everyone was calmed down, we set up our rods and baited them, then split the kids up into groups. It took a few minutes for the kids to learn the basics, but soon enough all of the kids were casting without getting close to hitting people (it's the little victories, y'know?) It's amazing how even casting and reeling is exciting for kids, even if they don't catch anything. 

     Thursday was my last day at Blacks Creek, at least for a while: I'm moving locations for the next two weeks, and part of me is glad because in my mind, change is always welcome. I'll miss the campers though, and I had finally learned all of their names. I think Blacks Creek is the perfect introduction site to working with Save the Harbor because the skills are easy to pick up even if you don't have experience (for example, I had never held or caught a crab before, but now I'm pretty good at it.) I'll also miss working with the Blacks Creek regulars: Eric, Briana, and Ariagnna.  I'm looking forward to my next site!

This week marks the first iteration of my song of the week! This will consist of songs I listen to on my commute that I think people will enjoy. I'll try to pick from different genres, but no guarantees there.

Song of the week: King of the Clouds by Panic! At The Disco

     See you in the next blog!

~Colin

New Experiences

This week I got to do something I've never done before. On Wednesday I got to visit our site at Black's Creek and I loved it. The day started with some exploration of the water which led to some interesting discoveries. The most interesting one was a green crab which was molting! I had never felt a crab so soft. It was interesting to see the difference in the shells.

Exploring the creek one net at a time!

At first the kids were nervous to pick up the crabs and settled on using a net to pull them out. I made sure they knew that as long as they do it the right way, the crabs can't hurt them. I showed them how to pull a crab out of the bucket without getting pinched and assured them that even if they did get pinched they would not lose any fingers. Finally, I got them holding the crabs and they realized there was nothing to be afraid of! After they overcame their fears of the crabs we decided to do a crab race. Instead of the typical race from the starting line to the water we decided to mix it up a bit. We drew a circle in the sand and placed the crabs in the middle to see which was fastest to leave the ring.

Gaga ball game!

After we released the crabs back to their home we headed up to play gaga ball. I have never played gaga ball in my entire life. Basically, you stand in a fenced in circle and try to roll the ball into other people's legs. Getting to play the game with the kids was a lot of fun and I enjoyed learning to play.
In the afternoon my group and I moved on to the Curley Community Center where we got to teach a bunch of kids how to fish. They were lined up at the rods waiting for instructions as soon as they got out there. Though we didn't have much luck with catching fish we did get quite a few crabs! An impressive moment was when one of the kids reeled in two crabs on one line. After that all of his friends wanted his help fishing! It was great to see everybody so excited about fihsing.

See you at the creek!

Sam

L Street Night

Hello Boston!

Ray, Preston, and Daynaja waiting for kids to arrive

Yesterday, I got to represent Save the Harbor/Save the Bay at the L Street Night event at the Curley Community Center. The L Street Night event was put in place to raise money for a playground that will be built in the area. This event was catered to families and children, which made it a perfect place to fish print! When we arrived, there was a band playing and fresh popcorn being popped for all of the guests. Our table was located in the sand so we slipped off our shoes and began to set up.

The sun sunk lower in the sky as families began to arrive. As our table was in the middle of the event, it was hard to miss. Soon enough, we had children running up to our table to learn more about fish printing. Younger siblings would make a print and then dart around to collect their older siblings to make one as well. A few kids were too excited to just stop at one fish print. Because we had a flounder and a fake flounder, we had quite a few kids who chose to do one of each. I don't think I will ever get over the shock in people's faces when they see that we have a real fish on the table.

Hanging the fish prints out to dry

 Many adults at the event were very interested in learning more about Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and all the work that we do for the community. I invited them all to join us for our free days at George's Island next week! I saw one family from the event on Spectacle Island today. This event was a great way for kids to make some amazing art, learn about flounder, and learn more about Save the Harbor/Save the Bay.

Don't forget to sign up for our free days on George's Island!

Sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker

How did you even do this?

On Friday I was told to be at the Curley Community Center on the M street entrance at 9:45. AndI looked up how to get there from Fields corner, and let's just say it's a very long walk after you get out of JFK/UMass. The walk was 27 minutes as I saw it on the map, so I had to plan ahead: I got up at around 7:30 and left at around 8:00 just so I could get there in time. When I eventually got to Curley Community Center I saw Melissa sitting down on the bench waiting by herself. So I decided to wait with her. We ended up waiting until around 9:45 in which Bridgette showed up with supplies in hand things like fishing rods, sandcastles,and a good amount of squid bait. While getting the supplies ready for the day another save the harbor save the bay staff member came along named Mary she also helps a lot with the activities we did that day. But the kids that were there, they were something else. Everyone was doing fine, I was getting bait for all the children and basically as soon as I finished getting all the children bait one came back and told me that his fishing rod line was tangled. So I untangled it for him and the deed was done but then about 5 minutes later Bridget called me over told me someone was having troubles with their fishing rod line being tangled so I decided to help out. Little did I know that this rod was so badly tangled that even after I cut the line, the fishing rod was still tangled to the point that the reel would not even move! So we ended up giving the Rod back to the people and they said they will get one of their people to fix the rod in after about five more people getting their lines tangled while fishing it was time to go!

The fishing rod mangled beyond the fixing level. 

May those fishing rods Rest In Peace
 ~Eric Joseph