Funds!

The legal process for SSS is going slower then I would like, but great news is the fact that I have the funds raised that I needed to go through the legal process to file the paperwork. How did I accomplish this? Through the Canvas and Coctails night. Each person who payed to go ($40) got to learn to paint the picture of the night and $10 dollars of each attendee went to SSS. I was a little disappointed that no teachers from school came to support me but there was a whole new crowd of people I could inform about SSS. 

All in all we $750!!! More than what we needed! So now I have the extra money to buy supplies for upcoming classes and events! That sounds so great! 

We also have another fundraiser this Sunday, the old fashion way; by doing a car wash! It is free with donations highly needed. I got the idea from my taekwondo, so I am happy to have all kinds of people involved to help the whole car wash in motion and make some more donation money!

SSS Taekwondo Addition

This is late, but never late then never. The Shimmer, Sparkle, Shine Event at my Teakwondo went great! I started promoting it a month before hand, and at first not alot of people signed up, making me really nervous. Last minute lots of girls signed up, and I was very excited. I wanted to make this a little different and incorporate TKD elements into the event, while still making it fun. To do this we discussed the Tenants of TKD in a fun way, and later on they played taekwondo games with out master. It was really cool because our volunteers got to try taekwondo, making them look silly which made the girls have lots of fun. When the day first started there was only 6 girls there, and that made me so nervous! I kept telling myself that it doesnt matter if I help one girls life, 6, or even 10000. Alot of girls called saying they were going to be late so we started the event later. Since I am big about being on time it was hard to shift plans, but it worked out for the best! They really enjoyed all the activities we had planned, but they really loved the boost books. This time the design was changed to make a few page prompts to get them thinking, then blank pages. Master Andre did a great pep talk, and they all enjoyed their gift bags! The girls also had a quick mini photo shoot with Carleigh in their uniforms doing taekwondo techniques. It was just so hard to fit all the girls in with quality photos.

Through this event I learned a few strengths and weaknesses on how to make it better for next time.

• Photo shoots take too long, and are so rushed. Plus getting the photos returned to the girls in a timely matter is difficult. I am not going to do this aspect in the future unless its for a small group of girls.
• Boost books are so essential to it all, and is something that the girls really enjoy and I must keep in.

In the end I accomplished what I wanted. All the girls walked away with a better sense of self worth and new techniques to help their confidence. In addition I opened up the communication barrier between myself and the middle school aged girls to see me as someone they can go to, which made nationals a blast. The younger girls still say Shimmer Sparkle Shine all the time, and keep asking if it will happen next summer. It was a great success. 

Nationals

I am proud to say I did a great job and had a great time at nationals! I did not place in the top 3 for a medal but I did great for my first time. I feel like I really accomplished my learning outcomes; which I would first like to discuss Collaborating Well With Others. I discussed how I really wanted to help out my team and be apart of the Teakwondo family, and be comfortable to get help from them and also help them in return. I did the fundraising to be apart of the team, and hard work of going there. My favorite was the car wash fundraiser. It was a nice contributing factor to the funds to go.

Along with this and camp I grew a connection to my team. I really felt like they were all there to support me, along with everyone else, and not think of our own teammates as competition. In Dallas at actual Nationals is where the aspect of the learning outcome really blossomed. Since my master was busy trying to help everyone and all over the place, we all helped each other. When I needed help on competition day my teammates held my boards for me and went over questions on my forms. We were all each others cheerleaders. I watched my team and cheered them on, even on days I didn't need to be there. When there was an adult meeting I watched all the children. All of the kids grew on me because I want to see them all do well because they have such great spirits, and I see their potential. I also bonded with the parents, and became friends with one of the moms at Teakwondo because she has a teenager spirit. I loved how this was accomplished, and how my heart grew for the team and the sport.

My second learning outcome was to Increase Awareness of Areas of Strength and Places for Growth. In my original goal of this process I stated finding room for growth in my forms from taking 2nd at state to taking a medal at nationals. I made goals to work on my L-stance and certain aggression of power, and balance for my form. To my dismay I found out that with only a week to learn and practice, my form I was to compete in changed. This freaked me out like no other, because I had to start from scratch. This really made me aware of my strengths and weaknesses for this form. I had a hard time with footage of using the left or right foot. Plus I had mind over matter, and my mind was psyching my out. I knew that my strengths were my facial expressions, hand techniques, and power. My weaknesses were of course balance and stances. I worked on this at home and in Dallas. I didn't place but I did learn my form and become aware of what was important to focus on in the short amount of time.

My other weak point I wanted to work on before nationals was my balance. I did this by working on WiiFit and trying this balance excersize at Teakwondo. We would work with the medicine balance balls. The goals progressed and got harder over time. We were supposed to be on our knees on the ball, hold ourselves up for a minute them do hang techniques. This progressed to doing a half frog and having one leg standing on the ball with the other leg flat and doing hand techniques. When I started I could even hold myself up with my legs, but then I stay focused and kept trying. By the end of the Teakwondo camp I could do the half frog for over a minute. I was very proud.

I feel like I accomplished my goals for this Action project, and I am very happy with it all!