After our CARA meeting it was full steam ahead for the Healthy Kids Day program. It was basically a day of activities for kids and their parents and learn about all the new and exciting programs that will be offered at the Y this summer. This biggest attraction was Sportacus from Lazy Town came and put on a great show for the kids. I work for the Sports and Fitness department so we had our own table set up with the new soccer program that we are offering, dance classes, karate classes, along with summer camps and other fun activities. During the event we had different games and prizes for the kids. We had kids shooting basketballs for pencils and also had a game of musical chairs for them. The two big attractions that we had were our raffle for White Sox tickets that I help provide and then to close out the event our R&B line dance teacher lead the kids and parents in different line dances. It was fun and very energetic event and I was glad to be in participation.
During this time I went to the YMCA and was gym attendant and fit attendant Majority of my time was spent watching over the gym room and helping clean up the fitness center. I learned the class schedule and what were the differences in all the classes offered. I looked in on a few but did not take any. I spoke with other employees about their experiences and shared my goals with them as well.
I sat down with the soccer coach and started the outline for our proposal to get a soccer league started at the YMCA. I gathered all the information needed to create the document. It had to entail a mission statement an overview of what the program was, a detailed budget that showed profit and loss, and lastly how it would benefit the community and who would help pay for it by being a sponsor.
The budget was my main concern because it had to be broken down by per child and then had to estimate by how many children we were expecting to show up. After I priced all the equipment and staffing needs with exact pricing I then used estimates to finish the budget and created a low mark for our expected revenue and a high point as well. We charge different prices to join the league for Y members and non Y members.
What is left to do is look over the Y's guidelines and see if I have included all the necessary materials so that they can approve our program and we start recruiting children. We are hoping to get 168 kids ages 5-10 to participate in the soccer league.
Getting ready and geared up for our CARA Roads Scholar program Open house was the key during this time frame. Spent my time emailing schools and asking them to pass around the flyers and make announcements during their school days to promote our program. I was unfortunately unable to attend the event but hopefully my hard work paid off and a lot of teens showed up.
The second task was beginning the talks of writing proposal for our soccer program. Our new soccer program is fairly new and needs a budget to get started
During this week the focus was on establishing guidelines and the beginning process for recruiting teens for our running program. I had to read through a book about fitness and then use the information to come up with a fitness plan for the students that will be in our running program.
The biggest thing I had to prepare for was the YMCA was holding an open house for all prospective clients and it was on the same day as YBA Homecoming. YBA is the biggest youth program that they Y offers and it stands for youth basketball association. Kids from 5-18 participate in it and they and their families fill the gym every Saturday from 9 am- 5pm. The program consists of over 300 kids and I have to help keep order. During this time on the 16th I also had to help prepare my mentor for our Sports ad fitness staff meeting. She put me in charge of the meeting for a few minutes in practice for when I have to lead my own staff meeting in the upcoming weeks.
On March 2, 2013 I traveled to Schaumburg, Il and attended a soccer expo for 4 hours. During this time I sat with coaches and talked about different training goals for children and also watched them coach classes. I walked around and went to different vendors so I could price uniforms and equipments. Also spoke with different companies about fundraising and opportunities to have them come out and teach our youth some days.
March 7-9 I worked a total of 15 hours. These hours consisted of sitting down with my mentor and creating a mock schedule and understanding what was expected of me and the programs that I will be placed in charged of. Went on tours of the Y and also shadowed a few employees to learn what it is they do. Learned how to be a wellness coach and take people through a guided workout.