On October 13, 2024, AYLUS set up a Fall Festival for kids who came. This event was held at Steppingstone Park for the kids’ enjoyment, and the volunteers who signed up to help with the event. Today, we did many different games, including rock climbing, face paint, bouncy houses, pumpkin decorating, wheelbarrow racing, and etc. Many different kids showed up to do different things such as the games stated and other. Volunteers stayed in one place helping the childrens who have questions or problems with the activities they were doing. During this, we had food set around the park, so the kids can get some food they enjoy while playing with friends. Furthermore, the kids, adults, and volunteers had much fun helping, playing, and seeing friends. These events that AYLUS has set up, helps with physical activities and helps kids find a creative side. AYLUS had tried to make this event as comfortable for children to enjoy.
The first area for activities was in the garden. The garden area was split into two parts, split down the middle of the fountain. On the right side Selena was working on a wheelbarrow race. The children first line up at one end and fill the wheelbarrow with hay. Then, they raced down the garden until the end. Afterwards, they were given a prize. Selena basically just made sure the line ran smoothly and helped kids fill the wheelbarrow. In the beginning, few if not no kids showed up. However when the crowd grew it got very popular and drew attention since it was in the front of the park.
On the other side of the garden, across the fountain, Jerry was there. On that side, there were tiny tractors for kids to drive around the garden. After the kids were done with their turn, they took a prize and left. Jerry’s job was to make sure kids stayed safe on the tractors and didn’t fall or get injured. In the beginning, a good amount of kids showed up and had a good amount of fun. Afterwards, it still stayed pretty consistent, only getting more popular by the minute. It did get pretty crowded since people saw and went as soon as they came through the park.
The volunteers were split up at different areas of the park. For example, Winter and Tom were set in a group that just simply had games and activities for the children to do. The games included Cornhole, Tic-tac-toe, Ring toss, and Can Knock Down. This was one of the free activities for the children to do which brought a large crowd. In the beginning They had very few kids come to the area. Winter and Tom first started at both tables. Eventually however the crowd grew and we realized the game with the sandbags was the most popular. Winter and Tom decided that we would switch off from table to table as the time passed. For the most part Winter and Tom spent time helping set sandbags and manage lines. They also spent time picking up tins or other things off the floor. Overall the kids and them had fun playing the games.
Xingchen Jin and Zachary Chen was in charge of the rockwall. They helped kids get their straps on, so they can climb the wall safely. Once the children reached the top, they helped the children get down safely. Once they got down they unstrapped the children. Their job was to make sure the line ran smoothly and they were strapped properly so they didn’t fall and wouldn’t get injured. The event was very popular from the beginning to the end. Throughout the day there was always a line waiting to go rock climbing.
Some of the activities that were included had different groups of volunteers. The decorating pumpkins had three volunteers, Summer, Shelly, and Ray Chen. They stayed in the designated area for the pumpkins. The volunteers were helping the kids pick out pumpkins and helping them bring it to the tables if needed. There were many different decorations around the tables and the volunteers helped find and organize them so it would be easier for the children to find. They walked around looking at the children decorating their pumpkins and helped get them the markers and stickers they needed. After the children created their pumpkins the volunteers recommended for them to write their names down on the pumpkins and leave it in the area and get it near the end so the children and adults didn’t have to go around carrying them the rest of the time. When they saw a mess left by a kid they let the kid finish up before going there to clean it up so the next kid can have a clean area for
Reported by : Shelly Lu and Winter Lu (credit to Summer Lu because we needed help)
summer lu, shelly lu, Winter Lu, Guangqi Lu, Jerry Li (4.5 hr)
Serena Chen (4 hr）
Xingchen Jin (2.5 hr)
Zachary Chen & Ray Chen (2hr)