Join us 18 January, 1pm in B301
STAR will hold its first committee meeting of Lent term this Wednesday, 18 January at 1pm in room B301.As always, committee meetings are open to all -- swing by and bring a friend.
Help us plan a:
-Lent term refugee film series
-refugee themed photo exhibition
-trip to a refugee camp/settlement
-programme to mentor refugee kids one-on-one
and more . . .
See you then!
posted by LSE STAR Committee @ 15:40
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Field Notes: KIDS ON ICE
By Jan Brouwer
Judging by the 40 kids laughing and carrying on when they finished at the rink, the evening of refugee kids ice-skating in London was a success. I had a small role as part of a team of volunteers helping the kids while they were on the ice. I arrived to the Museum of Natural History on the early side and met up with various other volunteers arriving in advance of the three mini-busses carrying 40 children (!). Most of the kids are between 7 and 12 years old and had never been on ice before.
Alarmingly, most of the other volunteers I talked with as they arrived weren’t on designated skating duty. Instead, they were there to help the kids get organized into lines, get their skates on, mitts and hats in place, etc. Emilie was the only other volunteer (at first) I could find who was putting on skates. I should note that a few weeks earlier I had made the mistake of confessing to Shiraz (one of the volunteer coordinators) a history of playing hockey in Canada. It was somehow understood that I knew something about skating, and, by extension, it was believed that I could teach the kids how it’s done -- most of whom had never skated before! Well, I was certainly willing to try. ;-) (It turned out that a number of volunteers indeed CAN skate (and did) and were better than me -- and better at teaching too, it would seem.)
After the anticipated explore-the-surroundings-of-the-ice-rink stage, the kids were corralled to the rink entrance where they exchanged shoes for skates. With the very capable help of various volunteers, all 80 feet got skates put on and directed to the shiny, inviting ice.
Over the course of the next hour, many kids found their comfort level and negotiated the main rink with everybody else, big and small Londoners alike. In assisting, the various volunteers on skates would travel the circuit around the rink with a young kid clinging to an arm for balance. It was amazing to see some of them get the hang of it so quickly. Many were natural ice rockets or ice queens. Everybody was giving it their best. At the end, some kids DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE THE ICE, as evidenced by their ice-eating grins . . .
It was rewarding to participate and simply to witness the kids discover an experience meant to be pure fun. As we know, for a number of the children, fun like this may sometimes be in short supply.
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