A Grand Experience for Cancer Patients, Survivors & Guests at the Christopher Farm & Gardens!

On Sunday, September 12^th, more than sixty cancer patients/survivors and their guests attended another “Survive, Thrive & Be Fit at the Christopher Farm & Gardens” outing! It happened to be Grandparents Day, so on this occasion we encouraged cancer patients/survivors to invite their children and grandchildren to join them as we scheduled a variety of “fun for kids of all ages” activities that included kite flying, stomp rockets, rock painting, a rock hunt and an amusement train ride on CF&G’s “Dairyland Express.”

I arrived a couple hours in advance to set up. As soon as I got out of my car, I was swarmed by mosquitoes... and, of course, I didn’t think to bring bug spray. As long as I kept moving in the light breeze it was annoying, but not terrible. And I was happy to see some breaks in the clouds. I did, however, contact one of our volunteers who came to the rescue with a few cans of bug spray!

The last thing I needed to do before guests would arrive was get my trilobite kite in the air to mark the location for the scheduled kite flying and a kite drop. With the increasing wind, it went up easily! I was happy!!!

At this point I returned to the parking area to greet guests as they arrived.

I was joined by volunteers Kirstin Opgenorth and Kathy Burch who greeted guests and I headed back to the kite flying field where we were to fly some kites starting at noon. When I got there, the kite was lying motionless on the ground!

As my wind meter indicated from Sunday, about 1130A the wind just dropped! I was no longer so happy!!!

Around noon there was a slight pick-up in the wind and, along with a group of volunteers including Sue & John Zalewski and Bob Hartig, we did all we could to try and get the trilobite back up in the air. But eventually, the wind dropped again... as did the kite! The lack of wind not only kept the kites from flying but did nothing to ward off the mosquitoes! The wind finally started to pick up about 4P... as we were leaving!

With the kites grounded, we turned to a back-up activity (one that needed no wind). We pulled out a parachute for some fun & games. About the time we started to get the hang of it... it started to rain! We held the parachute over our heads and stood underneath it to keep us a little drier until the rain began to lighten up... but decided it just wasn’t meant to be and headed to the next activity.

Erika of the CF&G along with volunteer Stacy Harriott offered Rock Painting opportunities for kids, young and old. As an added perk, this activity took place under cover of the Landscape Barn!

In addition, “Amy Rocks Rock Hunt” (see the "Amy Rocks" Rock Hunt article in this Update) took place at the “Ye Olde Tennis Court Garden” throughout the visit

See attached to see article with photos.