After many long hours on zoom with our Abilis friends, the chance to finally see each other in person is coming soon! This school year, GCDS students have not had the chance to work with Abilis members in person. Last year, there were a number of different in-person activities everyone was able to participate in, but COVID has since made things difficult.

Throughout last school year, Abilis members were able to come to the GCDS campus and do activities, eat snacks, and just hang out with some of our GCDS volunteers. These activities varied from playing sports with the varsity teams to making arts and crafts alongside students. Whatever the activity, it was so nice to interact with each other in person.  

When COVID hit, the collaboration between GCDS and Abilis had to adapt. Luckily, the CPG department was quick to figure things out, and we were able to meet with Abilis through zoom. These zoom activities provided both students and Abilis members a nice hour where they could spend time just joking around, making crafts, or getting up and moving. These zoom sessions were very successful and continue to function extremely well, so we are all glad that we had this chance to meet remotely. While zoom parties were always fun and entertaining, everyone was missing some in-person time together. 

Around a month ago, GCDS volunteers that regularly work with Abilis received an email about some possible in-person opportunities. Two of the biggest ideas from Mr. Lehn and Ms. Donnalley were holding a scavenger hunt on the OCR campus, and turning a GCDS van into an “ice cream truck” for our Abilis friends. Although COVID is still a huge risk for everyone, all of the Abilis members are fully vaccinated, and some GCDS volunteers are vaccinated as well. These ideas were big, but there is no challenge that the CPG department will back down to! 

Most of the planning of these events was left up to Mr. Lehn and Ms. Donnalley, but volunteers were kept informed during the process. The event that is coming to life now is turning a GCDS van into an “ice cream truck.” This truck would visit all of the Abilis members’ homes to “provide an ice cream novelty treat,” as Mr. Lehn put it. Recently, a date has been confirmed for this ice cream truck event. On May 15, a group of GCDS volunteers will leave OCR at 3:00 PM, and get a chance to see all Abilis members in person for the first time since last year. 

Hopefully, this event will be a huge success, and will spread some joy to both Abilis members and GCDS members. It will be so nice to see our Abilis friends in person, after seeing them on zoom for so long. This is definitely an event to look forward to, planned by the amazing CPG once again!

Photo Credit: https://www.abilis.us/