The AGE-UP Family Gets A Little Bigger

Greetings everyone, I’m Amanda, also an AGE UP second year. This past Friday marked the beginning of our winter sessions for first years (new participants). We kicked off the program with introductions within a HUGE circle (I’m talking a total of 50+ coaches, first years, and second years) to allow everyone to get familiar with their future family.

Shortly after, we chowed down on scrumptious pumpkin pancakes and a delicious medley of potatoes and other good sources of nutrition as we mingled and got to know each other better.

With our stomachs satisfied, we split into separate groups of four, each led by extremely awesome coaches where we all created our individual plates for future dining. We all used our artistic skills to personalize them by drawing pictures that pertained to inspirational quotes, frisbee, and just random things.

Later, we filled out some food allergy surveys for the Top Chef crew and began our first workshop of the program: Word Association.

We divided into our respective groups and rotated to posters around the room labelled “masculine”, “feminine”, “sport”, “athlete”, and “ultimate frisbee”. At these posters, we took a few minutes to write words that came to mind regarding each term. Upon completing the activity, we circled up and discussed the stereotypes and gender roles associated with the given terms on the posters.

With an hour and a half left in the session, we changed into our ulti-clothes, and got pumped for the ultimate portion of the program. To the horror of some and the delight of many, that included braving the jog from Jefferson CC to Mercer Middle School in the chilly weather (under the stars, at least!). From there, we got straight into plyometrics and throwing drills. We utilized the time to familiarize ourselves with each other and before we knew it, it was time to head back.

After the relaxing walk back, we concluded the session with a one-word check-out to express our feelings.