Porter here,
We have had a very busy time recently with lots of interesting stuff happening! Let’s get cracking on what we did since the last update.
Recently my class at Media Design School graduated and we had a great reception and graduation proceedings. Afterward, the staff went for drinks at a local bar called The Thirsty Dog and had a nice time socializing and listening to the entertainment. The bar was extremely dark and I did try to take pictures but it was an exercise in futility. I got some interesting long exposures where it looked like we were getting sucked
into a light vortex. (sigh) I will eventually master the low light settings and will get some good results soon I hope.
The next thing that happened is that Kelsey, who just turned 17 today, helped raise awareness and money for Leukemia. She decided the best way to do this was through the Shave10 program. Basically this is something that happens every year and her goal was around 500 dollars. She came very close to that mark ($374.00) thanks to some of our amazing friends and family! Thank you so much for the support.
We also recently went to Rotorua.
This trip was more for business, but it was certainly a pleasure. We went to a Diabetes Youth New Zealand event, where we had our MedAware booth. We had a great response, even though our booth looked like a kids lemonade stand at a trade show.
At this event, Renata and the kids all spoke at various times in front of about 80/90 people. Renata is used to public speaking, so wasn’t too concerned about her. The kids basically acted like they had been doing public speaking all their lives. They did an amazing job and we are incredibly proud. Remember, Kelsey recently shaved her head but she was up there having a great time. Marty has an awesome sense of humor and timing and he was complimented a great deal about how he handled himself.
After the event, we took the kids to Zorb! They loved it! We didn’t have a lot of time or money to do it more than once, but Kelsey said that she would have spewed if she had to do it again.
Something I did this last week, was breakout week at work, where we spent a great deal of time team building and having fun. We had a group called RhythmInteractive come in that plays these drums and has us do the same. The guy running the group had a great deal of expression and was loads of fun to watch, then after we had to make our own “bands” and play in front of the rest of the groups. Hilarity ensued. One of the last things we did which as my favorite, was to help some seniors learn how to text.
The groups also had to create some short films involving a rubber chicken named Cyril and in the story he is from Peru and looking for a typical Auckland experience. There were some hugely creative films, but of course that’s what we teach at MDS. I hope I can put some of the videos up here.
We worked with Age Concern Auckland Inc. at the Avondale community center. Maureen Craven (email her at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
) ran the event and each of the MDS staff had two seniors to work with. This was a great number of people to work with and one of my students, Mike, was fairly proficient, but needed a little bit of guidance and was on his way. My other student was a wonderful lady named Ida. She had never even used a cell phone and was having difficulty even pushing the right buttons. You could tell that Ida has been a hard-working independent lady her whole life and her calloused hands were having a difficult time feeling the subtle difference between the buttons. I showed her the proper way to hold the phone and how to add contacts and text them. We sat and talked for hours.
At the end, I was asking Maureen when the next event was being held and she said that they have a waiting list of seniors ready to learn and are just waiting on volunteers to help out. I can honestly say, our group found this experience one of the best we have had in a long time. If you are a Kiwi, I would like for you to experience how great this was. Contact Maureen Craven at Age Concern and volunteer your time. There are many more Ida’s out there that just need a bit of your time and patience in order to become more technology savvy. You will be glad you took the time to do it.
