With schools everywhere starting up again, activity at the YMCA and in Sweet Memorial has started to slow down. We have lost almost all of our seasonal staff, and there are nowhere near as many visitors as there were during the other summer months. Yesterday for example, I think I helped out maybe 20 guests during my eight hour shift. I was scheduled to run four family programs, but I only had guests signed up for two of them. To keep myself from going crazy, I have found lots of odd jobs to keep me busy, like re-fletching broken arrows, ripping sheets for animal detective headbands, restocking the trail tags, and even cutting out fins for our bottle rocket program. By the way, I should mention now that I hold the Sweet Memorial record for fitting the most fins on one poster board–44. Not an easy task, believe me!
One job I have recently found–actually look forward to doing–is updating the weather board. Earlier this summer, some of my coworkers started illustrating the weather forecast on our giant white board. Our boss, Gail, praised us for doing this, saying our creative and humorous interpretations of the weather always put smiles on the guests’ faces. Once most of the staff who did this job left, I decided to keep the tradition going. Pictured below are just a few of my forecasts (the ones I remembered to take pictures of).
As you can see, I like to draw the weather as a caricature–the sun always seems to be a cocky, overconfident subject, and the clouds are mischievous. It’s always fun to watch guests look up at the weather board and watch their reactions. Usually, their face starts solemn, and then a grin or a smile slowly creeps up. A few guests have even told me that they think I’m a talented artist. I’m proud to now be carrying the weather board torch, and plan to continue this summer 2008 staff tradition thoughout the rest of my stay at the YMCA.
