HERE'S TO TEAMWORK ABILITYFIRST JOINS FORCES WITH AREA SCOUTS TO HELP KIDS WITH DISABILITIES.Byline: EMILY GRILLY Special to the Valley News Boys Scouts and Cub Scouts from throughout the Valley have been doing their part to promote interaction between kids with and without disabilities. The Paul Weston Paul Weston (born Paul Wetstein) (March 12, 1912 – September 20, 1996) was a US pianist, arranger, composer and conductor. Weston was born in Springfield, Massachusetts . He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1933. Center in Woodland Hills, which serves people of all ages with physical and emotional disabilities, has been working with the Scouts on two different projects, said Jeff Richards Jeff Richards can refer to different people:
In one project, Boy Scouts from Troop 464, based in Woodland Hills/Calabasas, helped with improvements at the center. In the other project, Cub Scouts from throughout the Valley attended a weeklong camp at the center, taking part in activities with children with disabilities. The Paul Weston Center, located at 6530 Winnetka Ave., is part of a Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, nonprofit corporation nonprofit corporation n. an organization incorporated under state laws and approved by both the state's Secretary of State and its taxing authority as operating for educational, charitable, social, religious, civic or humanitarian purposes. called AbilityFirst. Boy Scout Riley Alexander, who is pursuing his Eagle rank, contacted the center and asked what he and his troop could do. ``The Scouts were willing to do whatever we asked them,'' Richards said. ``The center was going through a renovation, so we were very grateful for their help.'' One of the improvement projects was restoring a structure used to store playground equipment. The other was prepping an area to become what's called a Sensory Wall. It will have different colored lights, a section featuring phrases in Braille and an odor box that will give off different smells such as banana, bubble gum and lemon, Richards said. The wall is designed to stimulate all the senses and provide an interesting activity for disabled kids, he said, adding that he hopes the wall will be completed this fall. Cub Scouts from the Las Colinas Las Colinas is a developed area in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. Due to its central location between Dallas and Fort Worth and its proximity to DFW Airport, Las Colinas has been a viable place in the Metroplex for corporate and business relocation. District, which covers the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , took part in a weeklong camp at the center earlier this month. The camp had a medieval theme. Earlier this year, several Cub Scout camp directors approached Richards to see if they could use the center for their annual summer day camp. After a lot of discussion, they began making plans to bring the Cub Scouts and kids served by AbilityFirst together for five days of activities including archery archery, sport of shooting with bow and arrow, an important military and hunting skill before the introduction of gunpowder. England's Charles II fostered archery as sport, establishing in 1673 the world's oldest continuous archery tournament, the Ancient Scorton , water activities, puppet shows, singing and jousting jousting Medieval Western European mock battle between two horsemen who charged at each other with leveled lances in an attempt to unseat the other. It probably originated in France in the 11th century, superseding the mêlée, in which mock battles were held between with poles that had rubber tips, Richard said. They also ``feasted'' on chicken drumsticks. The Cub Scouts' ages ranged from 9 to 13, and the AbilityFirst participants ranged from 5 to 20 years old. ``AbilityFirst definitely hopes this camp will become an annual festivity,'' Richards said. AbilityFirst officials are trying to expand the project to create similar interactive programs at its five other centers, he added. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Local Cub Scouts joined kids with disabilities for a weeklong camp at the Paul Weston Center in Woodland Hills, where they took part in activities such as archery. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion