Have you heard? We have a new class at Wellspring called “Show, Tell, Plan it Well” and the participating STARS are loving it! To meet our mission more fully, this year we have invited our STARS to spearhead the planning of our annual events, such as the Walk to Empower, the Summer Celebration, our Evening of Inspiration, and our Christmas program. We have been able to tap into unique skills, strengths, desires, interests and hopes for the future held by each STAR in the class. Wow!!! It has been such a pleasure to witness all that has been happening and the buzz it’s creating!
The first part of our class time allows the STARS to not only share a part of themselves, but also practice public speaking skills in a friendly environment. In our first Show and Tell time, the STARS “showed” their favorite water bottle and “told” the class about it! We learned so much about each other just by listening to why they love the water bottle they chose. For instance, I learned that Ana likes to match her water bottle color to her jacket (purple of course). Daniel really enjoys the locking feature on his bottle because he doesn’t enjoy leaking. And Abi’s water bottle is special to her because it was a birthday present. Equally as cool, the STARS worked on eye contact and projection while presenting and every single STAR raised their hand wanting to go next! There was no anxiety at all which shows how special, encouraging and loving our environment is! I am looking forward to our next theme when we will show and tell something that can fit in your hand while focusing on descriptive words.
The second part of our class focuses on teaching the STARS event-planning skills. Each STAR was given a planning binder with tabbed sections and a calendar to help us keep track of our progress. We’ve seen the pride each STAR takes in these binders and the desire to make them “just right” is a testament to their professionalism. And the collaboration has been outstanding! For instance, Abi, an excellent note taker, has been elected our Event Team Secretary and she is compiling meeting minutes each week. Garrett has amazing ideas from themes, to movies, to playlists, and has made many lists full of them. In fact, before we can even finish discussing a topic, Garrett presents his list for the class to review! Amazing! When asked what his favorite part of the new events class was, Todd replied, “I like to be helpful. I want to help the team out!” Even the four staff members in charge of planning our events rescheduled their day to align with our class time! It has been a treat to witness staff and STARS working collaboratively on a planning project! The input from the STARS has been invaluable and it will be so fun to see the new direction our future events may take! We’ve already been working hard on The Walk to Empower and Summer Celebration. I’m sure you will see some differences and even a whole new twist to these events, all because of the STARS’ ideas!
This class will be an on-going experience for our STARS and I, for one, couldn’t be more excited. We hope you enjoy our future events brought to you, truly for the first time, by the STARS!