Part of our community engagement on this overseas venture starts in London.  Over the past five weeks, each of us have gone with two or three classmates to Dragon Hall in order to volunteer for one four hour slot.  We were both trepidacious and excited at the prospect of working with about thirty eager boys and girls in a community based after school program serving an important need in the local community.   Our Dragon Hall friends are from families that affording the cost of after school care is a significant challenge and, like London, were from families very diverse backgrounds. The charity as it states on its website and we discovered first hand is “inclusive, innovative and passionate about what we do – committed to making a positive difference to people’s lives.” Please see the following link to learn more about the community it serves: http://www.dragonhall.org.uk/about-us/

 

Instead of the elementary school children staying at daycare after school, we, the volunteers for the day, would go escort them from their nearby school back to Dragon Hall.  While most were content to walk in a straight line, we ensured that they were safe from any oncoming traffic.  When we all arrived back at Dragon Hall, the children would sit down amidst the activities we had prepared earlier with the other volunteers.  Some days, we would play a large game, like charades or bingo, in which all the children would interact together or in a few small groups.  Others, however, we would jump straight into the meat of the afternoon.  The children would disperse and go to various stations, and we would oversee, help, and even participate with them.  For example, I enjoyed a few rousing games of Uno before moving to Connect Four.  The ping pong table and the Nintendo 64 were the hottest ticket items, and I dared not enter the queue.  If none of those options interested you, there was fussball, drawing, and other board games.  Not only that, but there were healthy snacks served throughout.  While four hours had seemed like a long time at the start, it went in a flash.  Volunteering at Dragon Hall not only taught us how better to interact with the children, but was also a blast!