Its Friday, and as exhausted as I am, I'm also on an energy high. We (Don, my husband and co-trainer) got to Monterey Tuesday afternoon and settled in to our hotel, had dinner and began to go over for the final time our workshops. We always do this because it helps us be fresh and have our minds in tune with the next day's activities.
We met with Elizabeth the youth center Director there at the Presideo. They have a really spacious and well laid out center with lots of places for lots of various activities, classes and fun. We were expecting about 55 kids, Kindergarten through 3rd grade, and ended up with 60. The kids were incredibly alert, energetic and cooperative. We kept them for about an hour in sessions and the session with the 4-6th graders. Our topic was Bully Prevention. Knowing that you can't keep children of this age interested without some activity we do several impromptu role-plays and get them really involved; telling them right out the gate that we were there so they could teach us what they know.
It was a real ride with both the first group of K-3 and then the 4th through 6th graders, where we faced off with about 50 more kids. We got several pictures which will be up on our website by Monday. What makes the workshops we do for the Army families so much fun is that these kids have a head start over most civilian children and teens. The training they get at home goes farther in personal safety, I suppose because of the very nature of what their military parent does.
Later that afternoon we had the teens, grades 7-12. The topic this time was Safe Dating. Its always interesting to talk with teens on this subject. We find, even with the military teens that there are many things they either didn't realize or hadn't thought of or weren't sure of. This group of about 20 was pretty savvy, but we were able to enlighten them on several point.
A sad note is that just a few cities away in Richmond, a 15 year old girl was gang raped just a night or two before, outside of a school dance by 10 guys. All this happened while about a dozen others looked on. No one called 911 and there were many things that went wrong with the security issues by the school for the time the dance was going on. 7 of the 10 guys have now been arrested, so far they range from age 15 to 21. There will be more facts coming out on this horrible situation soon and I'll share them on this blog, but it helped me make a really good point about personal responsibility for their actions, and being aware of things going on around them. It also helped me make the point that standing by and doing nothing whether its a bully, rape, or any kind of assault, you are sharing in the guilt when you tell no one. We emphasized that it isn't necessary for them to step in and try to stop what is happening, especially if they are fearful for their life. But it is necessary for them to immediately go tell someone who can do something about it; or if they have a cell phone immediately to call 911.
That night we met with several parents and did our parent workshop that was very well received.
All in all along with a special morning after work excursion, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it was a successful, meaningful, and memorable trip.
Our thanks go out to Lynn Dettrich, the Family Advocacy Program Manger and her staff for making our time there most positive and enjoyable.
