Family Game Night

This month I expanded my volunteering to include some of my past experiences. On February 6, the Autism Society of Greater New Orleans (ASGNO) had their first ever Family Game Night. These events bring families from across New Orleans together and provide a place for them to meet and interact with other families with children who have autism. On this day only about 6 children with autism attended; however, the organizers hope to have more families in attendance next month when the event is not competing with Mardi Gras parades. Luckily, about 6 volunteers also attended, which allowed each of us to interact one-on-one with the children. I spent most of the night with a young man named Shawn who was fascinated with rappers. His favorite rapper is Wiz Khalifa and he was prone to randomly yelling out one of the artist's famous tag lines sporadically throughout the night. Although it was initially challenging to engage him, we eventually played Bingo and Sorry before eating the pizza ASGNO had ordered for the occasion. Overall, it was a very positive first volunteering experience with ASGNO and I am excited to continue meeting and working with more of the children next month. I also continued to volunteer at Touro ED this month, but had a lot fewer hours due to Mardi Gras parades and festivities.

February: 11 hours (Touro ED), 3 hours (ASGNO)

Total for semester: 41.5 hours (Touro) and 3 hours (ASGNO)