Cabin Fever Car Show
After Mike and Wanda attended their Sunday morning service at St. Agnes Catholic Church March 26, they were dropped off at Westwood Baptist Church. There, they met up with Michael, Scott, and home-coordinator Joe to attend the Easter Seals, Cabin Fever Cruise-In Car Show that was being held at the Home Depot parking lot at 5230 Pearl Drive on the Westside of Evansville. There was a good, large variety of about 80 customized classic cars and trucks to look over. Also, there were a few novelty vehicles like the ’61 Hearst with a mannequin hooked up to life support, and some specially built bicycles and wagons with lawnmower engines to power them. We posed for our picture to be taken by Joe beside one or two of the classic customized vehicles. This year there are many car shows on the calendar in the tri-state area and we plan on attending more of the Cruise-In Car Shows.
EACC Spring Fair
11:00am Saturday, April 1, 2006, Debbie, Donna Kay, Wanda, Michael, Scott, and home-coordinators Carol and Barry went to the National Guard Armory. This is where the Evansville Area Community of Churches (EACC) were holding their 'Spring Fair, to benefit the Weekday Christian Education Program. This year, their 32nd annual 'Spring Fair' included a flea-market of arts, crafts, books, homemade baked goods, jams, and a fried chicken dinner with all the fixings plus desert. A loaf of freshly baked bread was purchased and it was good-n-tasty. We saw a few familiar faces from St. Paul’s UCC of German Township. Generously, Pastor Dan Sather had a young man named Conner assist Scott with his plate through the food line.
The EACC has been crossing denominational lines and touching lives in order to better serve the needs of the Evansville community since 1938. The EACC helped give birth to Evansville’s own Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Jail Task Force Ministry, The Tri-State Food Bank, and numerous other local agencies and ministries. There are seven food pantries in Evansville that were established in 1969. Since 1942, more than 1,000 third and fourth graders from twenty elementary Evansville-Vanderburgh public schools have been learning religious teachings through the free non-denominational Weekday Christian Education Program. This program of teaching begins in October and runs through May. Seventy-five percent of the children in the program do not attend a church; therefore, these classes are taught by experienced teachers that meet the children during the school day on release-time in mobile classrooms.
Donkey Basketball Game
Just by coincidence 6:00 Saturday evening, the first day of April-fools, the residents of Jacob’s Village went to a Donkey Basketball Game. The Ribeyre Gymnasium Restoration Group (RGRG) of New Harmony sponsored a fund raiser for its renovation. The RGRG has plans to modify the old gym, built in 1924, to a more functional facility. The World Famous Buckeye Donkey Ball Donkeys from Columbus, Ohio, were in action for a celebrity exhibition basketball game at the New Harmony School. The residents from Jacob’s Village attending the Donkey Match were Wanda, Donna Kay, Mike, Michael, Scott, and home-coordinators Carol, Halleck, and Barry. When the Jacob’s Village bunch arrived early for the game, the trainers had ten Donkeys lined up next to their trailer out in the parking lot grooming and prepping them for the game. Their trainer allowed picture’s to be taken with 'Fast Frank' while the other Donkeys were not ready yet. All Donkeys wore getting specially fitted rubber shoes on their hooves so they wouldn’t damage the floor. Upon entering the gymnasium, Charles Huck directed the Jacob’s Village bunch to their reserved two front row bleacher seats. There were four teams with four Donkeys and riders per team and all the riders were associated with the School or from New Harmony. The pooper-scoopers, with bucket and scoop shovel, were waiting patiently for action, in which, their time did come. They played three games with the winners of the first two games playing in the championship game. The rules of the game were as such; riders had to be on their Donkey to score a basket or to pass the basketball, but they could get off their Donkey to try and move him into place or at least close enough to make a basket. After the first game, a rider brought the smallest Donkey named 'Killer' over for the residents to pet and have pictures taken. Wanda fell in love with this little donkey and wanted to bring him home. So naturally, 'Killer' was the one to cheer for, and for a little Donkey, he had a lot of kick to his buck. He did buck some riders off and would drop his head to the floor forcing the rider to slide down his neck. Fortunately, no one was severely injured, although a bit sore. The games, filled with laughter, were hilarious and a good time was had by all. The winning team on this night was the 'Donkey Donks'.
USI O/T Students
University of Southern Indiana students Kendra Banschbach, Karen Fowler, and Jeremy Gorman are majoring in the field of Occupational Therapy. A requirement of their studies to complete their degree is to develop and provide O/T services for a facility that could potentially benefit from these services. This type of program in O/T studies is called the Synthesis Course. Barb Williams, Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy at USI, and a member of the Jacob’s Village Board of Directors is directing these students through this project with the residents of Jacob’s Village. Since January, these students have been visiting Jacob’s Village every Saturday at 2:00pm to involve the residents in different types of activities. These activities include pitching balls of all sorts back and forth to each other, putting golf balls, scavenger hunts and word association games to stimulate the mind. Exercise type of activities that are designed to work the range of motion in the arms, shoulders, legs, and trunk rotation that benefit our flexibility. One afternoon they had mixing dough in a bowl that each one of us rolled up, cut in half in equal lengths, braided them in a small circle, put’em in a pan, baked them in the oven and they came out napkin holders. While we were waiting for them to bake, the USI students opened up the paint, paint brushes, assorted sponge shapes, and stencils and we painted masterpieces. The last session of the student’s project they left us a small token of their appreciation and cooperation. Karen had recently been to Albuquerque, New Mexico and picked up a few Indian crafts such as a couple of dream-catchers and some specially painted little bobble-head frogs carved out of wood that she gave us. We really enjoyed their eagerness, attitude, and ambition to help us in a positive way and we miss them dearly since their course work has been completed. We wished them the best of luck and happiness in their future plans.
