March 11, 2016
On Saturday, March 5th the Harlem Children Zone’s, Promise Academy 1 Boxing Club went on a fun-filled trip to Bear Mountain State Park. This adventure included twelve students, two ICO youth leaders (Andrew and Angelica), and two ICO volunteers (William Hirschfeld & Rolando Reyes).
We started our day with an icebreaker called Picnic, led by one of our youth leaders, Andrew. After the icebreaker, we quickly went over the rules—1) Have Fun 2) Leave No Trace 3) No Horse Playing 4) Stay Together. Shortly thereafter, we went on the merry-go-round where students and volunteers had the chance to ride on an animal of their choice. After the merry-go-round, we went outside to play basketball and football while we waited for our ice-skating session to begin at 12:00PM. Our youth leaders were on one-half of the basketball court playing an intense two-on-two match with the students; on the other half Will was playing a few pick-up games while Rolando was throwing the football around with the remaining students.
Before we knew it the clock struck twelve and our ice-skating session was open for admission. The students could not contain their excitement as they rushed to lace up their skates and hit the fresh ice. Throughout the hour and a half session students and volunteers helped one another with balancing on ice, groups raced around the rink, and many showed off their dance moves to the music that was playing in the background.
After skating, we had lunch on a nearby picnic table and proceeded to walk over to the zoo. Students were in for a delightful surprise as they witnessed black bears coexisting with black vultures, red foxes that were caged side-by-side to a bobcat, and a group of wild coyotes who were entertaining us with, what appeared to be, a game of tag.
After taking a walk around the zoo, we regrouped next to the merry-go-round and reflected on everyone’s favorite part of the day. Afterwards, we boarded the bus and headed back to Harlem; the bus was filled with laughter, joy, and a sense of rejuvenation which is a good indicator of a successful outing.