Keaton's Kids Mid-Summer Update

Summer is sizzling hot for Keaton's Kids!

We are once again hosting the kids from NECs in Peekskill on Tuesdays to learn swimming skills with Pam Zicca, and hiking our local trails. This week they learned to use a rescue device with Pam, and then we took them to the Cornish Estate with a treasure hunt. They had fun recognizing some important plants (hello there, poison ivy!) and finding the frogs in the ancient pool there. I love this video of them swimming behind Frederica the Flamingo like her little "flaminglets".

Last week Kevin and I spent two days and a night at a leadership training camp with CatRock Ventures and the Sierra Club at Harriman Park. It was a wonderful training, parts of it led by youth we had seen grow through the ranks in CatRock (like Katia and Jonathon, below). Harriman Park is an amazing place. They have all the equipment you need to take kids out camping, including tents, sleeping bags, shoes for hiking, warm jackets for cold weather hiking, and life vests for canoeing.

During the training we learned about leading outings safely and respectfully. We learned about racism and micro-aggression, and being good stewards of the land. We felt a little like kids again swimming in the lake during breaks in the day and cooking s'mores over a fire at night. Being trained by the Sierra Club allows us to lead our own outings more safely and be eligible for insurance through the Sierra Club. Big deal!

We took our lives into our own hands driving home Sunday night, though. The flooding was epic and every road to the Bear Mountain Bridge was closed. We inched our way through 18" of water to make it to Newburgh and thankfully that bridge was open. We wish we'd taken pictures and video of the water cascading down the mountain towards the road, but I was white knuckling it in the passenger seat and Kevin was paying every bit of attention to the road! 

Growing Pains & Extreme Weather

What happened to the Great Skate Giveaway?

No one was more disappointed than we were when the skateboards did not show up in time to be distributed last weekend. We had the DJ ready, the Icee man was booked, the snacks were there, the cool water bottles were in. But no boards! Last year we delivered 75. This year we were set to give away 125 boards and helmets. But Mother Nature had other plans. Epic rains and trucking issues ground us to a halt. I felt like I was letting Keaton down in some way. The moms from Keep It Moving, our partners, felt the same about their son, Zane.

But we are committed to getting those 125 kids their boards! We will be hand delivering each and every board to each and every kid in the coming week or so.

The boards WILL come!

The boards WILL come. (As of now, the boards have arrived, but the helmets are lost in transit. ) It seems that ordering over 100 boards put us in another delivery category. We live and learn every day doing this work. Chalk it up to Keaton's Kids having growing pains!

We have so much to look forward to this year--stay tuned!