PlayGroup Update: Birthday Celebration!

Our volunteers are valuable assets here at proVISION ASIA and we include the Bohner family in our long list of volunteers.  This PlayGroup was a special one because it was their daughter, Katie’s birthday and she wanted to spend a portion of her special day with us. We wanted to share what Lisa Bohner shared with her friends & family:

“Dear friend Joan Walsh first introduced me to Provision Asia last year at the OWC Charity event where she and I volunteered to push a wheelchair for 4kms during the big TATA 10k event.  This is one of the thousands of NGOs in Bangalore which help a community group, in this case, people with physical and mental disabilities though a variety of activities.  They work in a largely Muslim community, though they help people of all faiths.  Recently the OWC assisted in the purchase of 8 customized motor scooters (Vespas with training wheels) for 8 disabled men (who contributed 1/2 the cost of about $1,000, or about 4 months wages).  One of the remarkable things this group does is build customized wheelchairs from broken wheelchair parts which arrive in 40′ containers shipped from the USA.

Each month the group hosts a 2 hour Playgroup at a local park where families gather to hear a story, sing a few songs, do a simple craft project and have a snack.  Last month our family attended for the first time.  Katie led the group in singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and Calvin led the action for “Going on a Squishy Hunt.”  We were told to bring a small snack for 70, and brought about 90 oatmeal and raisin cookies (since I was fresh out of chocolate chips).  The kids loved our energy and the ‘exotic’ treats.  Katie was so excited she wanted to come in April and celebrate her birthday (the 14th) with the group.

We found 35 Zoobooks and Kid’s National Geographic magazines to donate to the PA school.  Here’s Katie pictured with Danny, who is in India with his wife Keturah volunteering at PA.  Danny’s heading up the school which just opened 8 months ago.  Danny remembers these books from his own youth and was excited to add them to the schools’ library.

Danny and Katie
Friday night after a full week at school (and 5:30am wake ups) Katie and her friends Paula, Amira and Nicole frosted 4 double layer chocolate cakes and 48 cupcakes with 7 pounds of multi-colored butter cream frosting.  You would have been inspired at the amazing creativity in cake designs.  It was over 100 degrees F and the frosting so soft, it wasn’t really pipe-able, but the girls made their designs hold-shape.

cupcakes for proVISION ASIA!

At the playgroup, the girls started by leading the group with Bingo, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the Macarana Months, then Calvin did the Squishy Hunt again.  Then we read two stories: The Seven Blind Mice, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Below you see Nicole holding the book, Amira reading, Katie holding the props (‘on Monday he ate through 1 apple’) and a volunteer who translated the story in Kannada, the local language of the state.  As part of our gift, we gave the book and the props to the school.

 proVISION ASIA PlayGroup

In the end of the story, the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, so our coordinating craft was for the kids to color and decorate a butterfly.  Each kid worked with a different group or family to help them decorate their picture.

 Katie at proVISION ASIA!

The snack was the girls’ decorated cakes, some potato chips and a chocolate gold coin.  Once all the plates were passed out, there were nearly 100 people sharing in Katie’s birthday.  It is a wonder to see these young people playing with the kids and circulating among the largely veiled crowd of local woman, some not much older than Katie and Calvin caring for profoundly disabled children.  A genuine smile and positive words of encouragement over a shared project cut through that lack of a common language and all feel welcome.  I am humbled to remember Katie as the quite girl who hated loud noises and was frightened by large groups just a few years ago.  She tells me that she still hates noise and crowds….well, old habits die hard.

friends of proVISION ASIA!

Oh my dear….how you have grown!  What a blessing you are to us, your family and the world”.


1 thought on “PlayGroup Update: Birthday Celebration!”

  • 1
    Danny Gray on May 3, 2013 Reply

    Great story and pictures also.

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