On Saturday, On Sunday, May 5, 2024, from 10:30 AM-1:30 PM, the AYLUS Roslyn Branch volunteered at CP Nassau Bayville, and assisted the workers with various activities. CP Nassau (Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County) is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to providing quality services for children and adults with cerebral palsy. One of their programs is to provide residential life services to adults in a healthy, safe and secure home-like living environment. This group home is the largest group home among the CP Nassau residences.
Today, 3 members of Roslyn Branch came up with fun activities for the patients. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a warm welcome from the residents. Our opening activity was arts and crafts, making tacos with paper plates, paint, and staplers. We assisted the residents by helping them paint the paper plates, and then stuffing the tacos with paper scraps. This activity was challenging because some residents got their hands messy, and we had to clean them up. However, we enjoyed this activity because the residents showed their artistic side, and were in their Cinco de Mayo spirit! After this activity, we gathered the residents in a circle and played connect four. However, they did not seem to have fun with this activity today, so we decided that to uplift their spirit, we would go bowling! As the volunteers set up the bowling materials, the residents seemed to start to glow with happiness. Each and every resident got two turns. Almost every time, they knocked down all the pins on their first try! After we were finished bowling, it was snack time. The volunteers distributed the snacks among the residents. After snack time, the workers brought out a basket of bean bags, and a large target. It was the most engaging to the residents out of all the activities. The volunteers shifted the target from person to person, and they nailed the bullseye every time! After all of these activities, the residents wanted to settle down. We ended the day by putting on a movie to watch, and getting each one of the residents lunch.
The most challenging part of this was the amount of residents. It seems that we were very short staffed today. However, we overcame this obstacle by arranging them neatly to make sure everyone got their turn. We learned today that it doesn’t matter how many people there are, because the more people you can help, the more you can learn, and the more rewarding it feels inside of us.
Members who participated include:
Leo Zheng (3 hours), Maxim Li (3 hours), Zihan Wang (3 hours)
Reporter: Leo Zheng
