Mondays have become special at The Hill. Harrisburg School District has a four-day school week, so on Mondays, all the children living at The Hill are home and need something constructive to do with their time. Our on-site foster parents and our Volunteer & Program Coordinator, Daisy Marquez, are pros at thinking of fun and creative things for the children to do. Daisy is especially gifted at finding meaningful and constructive activities for the wide range of youth in our care.
We are also blessed with two other individuals, Sam Coy and Tom Head, who are the Property Managers for all of Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries. Sam and Tom are both seasoned outdoorsmen who love to find ways to share the great outdoors and nature with the children. Their latest adventure has been discovering how to make maple syrup.
The history of tapping maple trees for syrup dates back hundreds of years to the indigenous people of North America, who were the first to discover the sweet sap that flowed from maple trees in the early spring. The indigenous people of North America would collect the sap and boil it over an open fire to evaporate the water, leaving behind the sweet syrup. This syrup was used as a sweetener for their food and also as a medicine.
On the first maple-syrup Monday, Sam and Tom took the children out on a hike, searching for maple trees. They were able to locate many of them and show the children how to tap the trees to collect the sap.
The second Monday, Sam and Tom took the children back out to collect all the sap and started boiling it down over a fire. This took about four hours, and the children enjoyed watching the process. The syrup was then placed in jars to cool.
By the third Monday, the maple syrup was ready to enjoy. Sam and Tom had planned a pancake breakfast. As soon as the children arrived, they were eager to help flip pancakes and taste the syrup. Everyone was amazed at how delicious it tasted.
This is just one sweet example of making memories on Mondays. We have spent countless hours making happy, meaningful memories that help heal the soul.
Sam and Tom have also led an archery club for the children at The Hill. They both enjoy watching children learn and seeing their face light up when they finally hit the target. The Monday archery club turned out to be a huge hit and will start up again soon as the weather warms up.
Another great memory our children made was learning how to turn a tree into something valuable—a bird’s home. Sam and Tom took groups of children up to the workshop where they transformed a piece of wood into the parts to build a bird house. Many of the children learned how power tools operate and to cut their own supplies. Once all the groups had cut their materials, everyone met at the Hubble home, and we built our bird houses together, step by step. Have you ever heard 17 hammers all at once? That will surely create a memory!
The following week, the children brought their wooden bird houses up to Cathy’s home where Daisy set up materials to design and paint each house. After the houses were dry, the children met again at Cathy’s home, with their bird house in one hand and a smile on their face. Sam and Tom took the children all around the property to hang their creations. A few weeks later, mama birds and their eggs were nesting all around Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries. Children would often boast about the birds living in their house, and how proud they were.
Sam says his favorite part of his job is being able to build meaningful relationships and serve the children. Sam and Tom are responsible for managing the property, but the role they play is so much more. Teaching life skills, how to be self-sufficient, and exploring God’s creation are all things Sam, Tom, and Daisy look forward to when planning activities with the children.
Whether we are building furniture, chasing creeks, learning to paint, mushroom hunting, or fishing, the main goal is to make the children feel important, safe, and cared for. Through activities like these, we are making new memories all the time.
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