Volunteering with Thomson Reuters

This past Friday, October 23, a handful of our SCORES participants joined volunteers from the local Thomson Reuters office for Make a Difference Day. Both groups and our staff gathered at the Dellwood Indoor Soccer Arena for a day of poetry, soccer, dancing, and fun!

The day started off with both groups creating their own group "I am" or "we are" poems. These poems were a great way for the teams to practice together and to identify unique characteristics of the individuals in the group or the group itself.

After this session, our volunteers were finally able to interact with the kids by learning every body's name. First, everyone gathered in a circle in the middle of the soccer field. Next, Matt announced his name along with an adjective which started with the same letter as his first name (Mathematical Matt). The next person to his left had to repeat Matt's first name and adjective along with his or her own. This continued until the last person in the circle went through and recited every one's adjective and name. Some of our favorites included "Mississippi Marcel", "Ridiculous Rhett" and "Sassy Sean".

Next, everyone rotated between three separate stations: 1) a modified game of sharks and minnows that taught everyone about the importance of staying hydrated (water instead of soda!); 2) A World Cup station that educated everyone on different countries and geographies, which also involved teams of two competing to be the last team standing; 3) A gauntlet station where the participants had to evade defenders trying to steal their ball away.

For our delicious and nutritious lunch, we had sandwiches from Subway, 100% juice, Gatorade or water, fresh fruit, and either vegetable root or Sun chips.

Everyone would need all that energy for our next activity, a high-intensity dance workout called Zumba. Zumba incorporates merengue, salsa, cumbia, reggaeton into a very fun, very high energy workout for all ages.

Our day concluded with a soccer scrimmage that spanned the entire field. Let's just say that some of our kids and volunteers were fairly winded after the match!

We will be posting some photos from the event in the near future and would like to thank Thomson Reuters again for spending a day to support our program. Hopefully we'll be able to partner with you again in the future!