What fun!

Okay, so I forgot to post last weekend... I was going to complain about the lack of courtesy in "customer service," so maybe it's a good thing I just stewed on that and didn't post while I was annoyed.

Instead, I'm going to post about my fun this weekend. We've had a ton of rain here lately, and lots of flooding because of it. The Grand River was at 21.17 feet as of 3:32 Saturday, and is expected to crest at 2 a.m. Monday around 22.7 feet. Yikes!!! I was downtown right next to the river on Saturday, and it was amazing to see the downtown bridges with water almost up to the roadway. I did a senior photo shoot down there a few months ago and where we were for the photos is all completely submerged now.

Anyway, on to the fun part. I was downtown to work as a volunteer for JumpJam, a free jump rope competition for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students of Grand Rapids Public Schools.
It was hosted by Spectrum Health, and when the email came out asking for volunteers it sounded like a lot of fun. What a hoot!! There are about 500 students participating, and kids jumping everywhere. I saw kids that were trying hard and having so much fun, and some that were just amazing with how fast they could jump. I had a great group to help, those kids were having such a good time!

One of the coaches was watching kids practice, and said "oh, we're in trouble...." Turns out they had to YouTube how to double dutch, and teach a lot of their kids how to jump rope. He and I looked at each other and agreed that perhaps having a chat about doing your best and having a good time doing it would a good plan for the start of the day. I think they did. I'm sure they were a little disappointed that they didn't win any of the awards, but I know they all had a good time. So did I. I was there after working all night, and stayed until after the awards (I wanted to see how they did, even if it did mean a 9-hour day). My hat goes off to the kids, parents and coaches from Covell for all their hard work, time commitment (for practices and the event itself), and positive attitude. I loved spending the day with them and I'm so glad I volunteered.

I miss the interaction with kids that I always had with Scouts. Not enough to sign up to be a leader again, but I would definitely sign up to volunteer for this event and others like it again. I had so much fun and came home exhausted but happy. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday than helping and encouraging kids... Even after working 8 hours!