My First Sand Sculpting Experience

Hey everyone! Its me, Maeve, and I'm back to share about my adventures at Camp Harbor View. On Thursday AND Friday it was very, very hot and sitting on the dock and fishing for the whole day did not sound appealing to our crew or even to the kids. Instead of fishing we did something a little different. Some may know about the abandoned fort on Long Island which was used in various small battles in the Boston Harbor. Today there is not much to it except for some ladders and he calcium deposits on the ceiling. I think the thing that the kids love about walking up to the fort is that it is a mysterious adventure but, more importantly, because it is nice and cool inside.

The front of the fort

On Fridays at CHV the camp holds a cookout which the kids love because they look forward to eating outside. I love ending the week with some burgers and hot dogs.

The kids at lunch on Friday

Saturday and Sunday at Revere beach were very different from the end of my week because it was nice and cloudy. I worked two events in total for the Sand Castle competition which is amazing to see the sculptures in person. I had never been so it was a new experience for me. They shut down the whole street and they had tons of delicious food, games and rides. On the beach they had activities for the kids like which is where we were located. We had a table set up for fish printing which always gets my hands completely covered but luckily it comes off easily. My favorite part about fish printing is seeing the parents faces when we tell them that the fish they are fish printing on is a real fish. Some people are in shock and they think fish printing is so cool because it is really unique. The best thing about both days at revere beach was that it wasn’t too hot and that I got to eat some yummy fried dough! Well everyone, that’s all I have for you this week. Until next time!

Fish Printing

A very creative fish print

-Maeve Fittz

Cartwheel Workout Routine

Welcome all to another blog post!

The girls this week were very into gymnastics, especially Leila, Michaela, Kylie, and Johanna (in the picture above)! When we would transition to the sprinkler area, these girls constantly had me doing gymnastics with them. To my surprise I learned the proper technique for a cartwheel and I improved my hand stand! This all started after Johanna was fed up with bored during Monday and Tuesday's park time; on Wednesday Johanna took initiative to make herself, Hannah, the second Leila and I judges for a gymnastic competition comprised of all the kids who were eager to do cartwheels, back bends and other tricks. 

I role played as a Urban Farmer this Friday and one of the videos from my MLK Friday sessions with John Hancock left me tearing up a bit. The video that had me tearing up was on how folks from Boston see themselves and Boston in 2030. This week I had turned twenty years old, and I did not come to realize how fast time was starting to go by for me. It was during the video that I got a reminder that you really should make the most out of every day! 

On Saturday Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay had a great opportunity to do fish printing at Revere Beach's annual Sand sculpting event. I really enjoyed seeing the kids who tried fish printing for the first time. I tried my best to offer up alternative designs for painting the flounder versus the usual monochromatic flounder and ended up with some cool stripe patterns!

I can't wait to tell you guys and girls about next week!

Raymond Chai

Weekend at the Beach

Hey guys,
I spent this weekend relaxing at the beach...well sort of. I went to the sand-sculpting festival at Revere Beach on both Saturday and Sunday to do some fish printing, which is just as fun as relaxing. It started out with us struggling to find where to set up. On Saturday we walked all the way down to the sculptures in the burning hot sand and burning hot sun just to realize that we had to walk all the way back to where we came from. The nice thing was that we were able to set up in a pavilion, which meant we were able to stay out of the sun. Luckily, when we were waiting for the rest of our team to arrive on Sunday, we were able to find the table that we used on Saturday and we were able to easily claim it. When we got back we were able to find a picnic table to set up. We covered the table with trash bags and got the fish and paint out. We waited for the children to walk by to ask if they wanted to make a fish print. Some of the children were very excited to make a fish print, but some of them did not want to. Maybe it was the fact that they did not want to touch a dead fish.

On Saturday we got about 10 kids, and Sunday we got about 15 kids. It was great to meet so many children and see how excited they were to do something new. Almost every kid who completed a print had a big smile on their face. No two kids made the same fish, and I think that that is really amazing. On Sunday I found that more kids preferred using two colors and painting the fish half and half. Whereas on Saturday more kids wanted to mix the colors. One of the best things was seeing adults react to the answer "Yes this is a real fish, yes it is really dead" when they asked "Is it real?" Another thing that made Saturday was that this group of people had bought maybe 10 pizzas and 5 sodas for themselves to eat, and they ate near us. They saw us fish printing and they themselves even had a few questions about it, but of course they did not want to try it. The great thing was that they ended up not consuming everything, and towards the end of our shift, they offered us two boxes of pizza, the soda, and cups that they had left over. In the middle of our Sunday shift, Jam'n 94.5 ended up setting up right next to us, so we got to listen to some music as we completed the day. Both days were full of fun, and full of happy children.

And of course, would it really be a fish printing day if you did not get ink all over you?
Til next time,
Amanda