Saturday night, we had our first-ever GNO Lock-in. Even though I decided to leave at 11 instead of sleeping over, I had a blast with the girls and it was a hugely successful night. I found out on Monday at regular GNO that the girls didn't go to bed until about 5:30 a.m. so I was quite glad I left when I did.
The Lock-in was similar to Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya trips in the fact that it was all of the Green Bay GNO girls together. How many girls is that, do you ask? 76. That's right, 76 sixth grade girls together. And that is exactly why I didn't stay over night.
But in all seriousness, it was actually a great time, and I had just as much fun as the girls did. The biggest difference between the lock-in and typical GNO sessions, or even the camp trips, is that there were plenty of different activities and things for the girls to do, and although activities and time frames were staggered, they never had to do one thing at a certain time. In our Monday sessions, we have a theme and the girls all have to be participating in large and small group activities and the physical component. With the lock-in, they had the opportunity to choose how to spend their time.
Because the Y decided to cut GNO short by a few weeks in order to go up to Camp earlier in the year, they decided to bring some of the guests and themes to the lock-in. The girls were able to do facials with Mary Kay and learn about healthy skin care habits, got to learn about and practice self defense moves as well as lock-in specific activities.
A big hit for a lot of the girls was the two-hour open swim option. I, of course, wanted nothing to do with the pool so I have no idea what they were actually doing, but the majority of them nearly ran us over to get there when we gave them the ok. The girls who didn't want to swim, or only wanted to for a little while, were able to play board games, Wii Just Dance, and paint their nails. One of the volunteers apparently is a nail-painting guru because she brought half of the Health and Beauty section at Walmart with her. Seriously, she had a bin full of nail polishes and application tools. She even had those little image roll-on things. I watched her working on some of the girls' nails and they all turned out wonderfully.
I played a game of Sorry! and more importantly, got to meet some new people. The point of GNO and all of our efforts are to get the sixth graders to open up and make new friends, but it's just as beneficial for the volunteers. I have a really hard time talking to new people (though I've gotten way better) and it's really cool to meet other volunteers with similar interests. Our Sorry! game consisted of me, two other volunteers and a girl from a different school. I can't speak for any of them, but I think we enjoyed ourselves.
My final hour at the lock-in was spent watching the girls prepare for their garbage bag fashion show. You read that right. Garbage bag fashion show. The girls had to break up into small groups and had to make one item of clothing out of a garbage bag. They were able to glam up their outfit with strips of fabric, duct tape, foam stickers, glitter, ribbon and pipe cleaners. I was amazed at how well some of the groups did. One group's dress was actually so good it looked real. Many groups made dresses, and the majority were clearly strong channels of creativity. ...And there was also the group that decided they were going to make a cape that was "just random," aka, they just dumped a whole bunch of shit on their flat bag and wore it as a cape. While not the most creative and thought out, they did make me laugh.
If there is one thing those girls are good at, it's making me laugh.
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