On Sunday, December 22nd, from 10:30 to 1:30, the AYLUS Roslyn Branch had a very special visit to the CPNassau Bayville location for the Holidays! We had a very big surprise for the staff and the residents. Bayville is a large intermediate care facility run by CPNasau with the goal of providing care for many individuals with disabilities such as cerebral pasly.
In preparation for our Bayville visit, we did a fund raising to gift large activities for the Bayville location for the holidays. Thanks to the generous donations from our parents, we were able to purchase 3 activities, a toy axe/arrow throwing board, a fishing game, and an Velcro inflatable dart board. In addition to this, we had enough money left over to plan a surprise breakfast for the staff. The night before we prepared cookies, bought donuts, bagels, croissants, and made table decorations. In the morning, we brought everything to Bayville for the staff and residents to enjoy!
When we arrived at Bayville, we were greeted by the residents with their big smiles and some hugs. We immediately started to prepare the food and do the new activities. The staff loved the bagels, donuts, fresh fruits, cookies, and hot coffees, and they came in one after another to pick out what they liked to eat. The residents tried some of the new games, they especially enjoyed the fishing game. We let each resident take turns in using the fishing rod to reel in the magnetic fish from the fish pool, they loved it! Then, we tried the giant Velcro inflatable board, letting the residents throw and place Velcro soccer balls and tennis balls onto it. Finally, after we struggled to assemble the axe throwing board, we finally put it together and the residents tried it. While it may have been one of the harder games for the residents due to their limited hand mobility, they still loved it! As we played with the new activities, the residents and staff showed their gratitude for the food, activities, and volunteering. We learned how much even little gestures can make a big impact on people’s lives. After our activities, we played a game of bingo, we had a great time playing and we gave out gifts to the winners.
We are grateful for this year of volunteering as we completed over 700 hours of volunteering with CPNassau collectively, and we hope to have another successful year in 2025 by continuing to build friendships with the residents.
Reporter: Maxim Li
Volunteers that Participated: Maxim Li (3 Hours), Kacie Li (3 Hours), Michael Zhang (3 Hours), Kyle Shih (3 Hours), Darren Gao (3 Hours, Syosset), Austin Guo (3 Hours), Letao Tao (3 Hours),
