Playworks: Day 1

Monday the 19^th

This was the first day of our Playworks Journey. We began the day bright and early at 630am, took our group of 7 women (Rachel, Carly, Margaret, Kerra, Qiao Yi, Hannah, and myself) to the YMCA to shower. We are staying in United Methodist Church in downtown Denver. The church is in a very great neighborhood and the secretary and janitor were more than welcoming; but there are no showers. So we all hopped in the van and headed for community showers. After the YMCA we took a 15 minute drive to the office of Playworks and met the Director, Anglea. She was super helpful and welcoming, and showed us the 30 minute introduction video. It was interesting to see the insight into Playworks, as it was a non-profit organization that none of us had heard or known about. After the introduction video, we were placed in 3 separate elementary schools. Qiao Yi and Kerra were placed in Denver Green Elementary school, Margaret and Hannah were placed in Harrington Elementary School, and Rachel, Carly, and I were placed in Whittier Elementary School. At first we were wary of being separated but as the week went on we learned to love our separate schools very much. After driving all of the other groups to their schools, Carly, Rachel, and I arrived at Whittier ready to start our day. From day one, Rachel, Carly and I have enjoyed each other’s company and from this blog on I will refer to us as the OG’s (Original Gangsters). The OG’s met our Program Coordinator (PC’s), Coach Roo, and jumped right into our first class time. The first class time was hectic, but super fun. The OG’s took it really seriously (by that I mean we acted the most like children out of any of the children). We played 3 variations of Tag, did countless cheers, and overall enjoyed our time on Monday. After the school day was over at 4:30, we took a group nap after the exhausting day. Angela then contacted us with free tickets to go to the Pepsi Center to see the Denver Nuggets play the Dallas Mavericks. We hopped in the van and went to the first half of the game, loving being able to experience some Denver life.