A.C.T. Day Four

March 23rd

Even though we woke up to a bit of a gloomy day, we all ended up making it great anyway. Upon arrival to our site, we were taken to one of the specially made group homes for the IMPACT clients. These group homes are made to accommodate several handicapped clients to live in a house together with staff 24/7. We got to take a tour of one of the homes which was very interesting. They felt so home-y and were very personalized to each individual that lived there, which surprised me. We were told that the house was bought, then demolished and built from the ground up, so that the house could be wheelchair accessible. No one could ever have guessed that there was anything special about this house from the outside which was nice to know. The residents just want to be treated as normal people and I really think that them living in such a normal neighborhood in a normal looking house really helps with that. The home we visited and toured had four residents and each of them had their own room, decorated specifically for them by their families. I thought it was neat that they let us see where the patients went after their day at ACT was over. It gave me a deeper appreciation for the program.
It was back to ACT after the group homes tour. We were excited when we came back because we were told we were taking some of the patients on a shopping trip to target! We definitely did not know what we were in for though. The trip was super fun, but it took a great deal of effort and was very chaotic. It took quite a while to load and unload the clients into wheelchair accessible vans, but once we finally made it inside the target doors I was so excited for this outing! Each client had a certain envelope with money their families had provided them (about 5 dollars or so) to buy a little something from the store. We walked with the clients around the store for a good hour or so and let them browse, and finally after everyone was satisfied, we made it to the checkout line. This was an insane process because it was very chaotic and a little unorganized, but the frustration quickly melted away once I saw all the smiling faces surrounding me in the target parking lot. My favorite part of this outing with them was seeing how happy these specific two clients who called themselves "best friends" got matching transformers toys so they could play together when they returned to IMPACT that afternoon. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever witnessed, and really touched me.
Returning from the target run, I was exhausted, but went straight to the children's room! Here, I sang songs and learned sign language with some of the children. They were so lively and really taught me a lot of words to sign! It was a really good experience.
After killing a few hours at the North Park Mall in Dallas, our group was more than ready to see the midnight showing of The Hunger Games! We watched it in one of twenty-five showings in the theatre. It was packed and completely crazy, but so worth it. The movie was great. We did not get home till almost four in the morning and have to wake up in just a few hours, but I think the movie was really worth it! Tomorrow's going to be a long, long day!