Growing and Flourishing Activity Professionals Became Part of My Village!

You know that phrase it takes a village right???? We this week I learned that your village is never really complete and you can add as many people to it as you want. I had been looking forward to the South Carolina Activity Professionals Association Conference from the time it was booked last fall. It didn’t hurt that the conference was being held in Myrtle Beach!

I arrived on Tuesday excited to meet Debbie Bouknight who had been my contact since contracting with me. We had emailed a great deal and I was stunned by how she handled every detail with me as a speaker as if I was a nugget of gold! When she arrived at the airport to pick me up, she got out of her van and hugged me and I instantly knew she had become part of my village.

I went to lunch with Debbie and the board of SCAPA, and they were incredible! We laughed and shared stories making me even more excited about the conference that started on Wednesday! The first thing that got my attention was how excited these folks were and how much energy they had! When the conference began I was watching the action of the first sessions from my vendor table from which I was selling my puzzles and fidgets made with LEGO®️.

When one of the speakers began a session of Simon Says the place was just a sea of movement and laughter!! I was laughing hysterically from my seat!

When it was time for me to introduce LEGO®️ Serious Play®️ to the group, I was soooo excited!! It was me and 150 fun folks playing with lots of LEGO bricks! To incorporate their theme of growing and flourishing I deviated from one of my usual introductory builds and had the Activity Professionals build a tree!! The trees were spectacular in that they were colorful and diverse in their stature, height and width! I loved the results of the build so much that I will likely use it in the future. They laughed and cheered for each other as they shared the stories of their builds and even those who had never used LEGO created some awesome builds!

Of course I also had them build JOY and a skill that want to use to continue to flourish in 2024. I learned a lot from those builds and the stories they represented! People were so amazed by LEGO Serious Play and the idea that they could use it with their residents and families! I was ecstatic that I had shared something with them that almost none of them had heard of before.

I had found another village that welcomed me with open arms. At dinner on Wednesday night, several of us talked about my doing a LEGO Serious Play facilitator course in SC so they can share this methodology with others.

Thursday was a really big day for me because I gave three different breakout session presentations back to back separated by an hour for lunch! I rarely do multiple presentations in the same day, BUT this group was worth that effort! They took photos and notes, asked great questions and shared some of their experiences! I just love all of them! Several people commented on how my energy level lasted the entire day and into the night. I went walking after the sessions ended, then got dressed for the banquet which was all about a Garden Party! The outfits and hats folks wore were legendary and I’ll never forget that night! I had great conversations with people and danced quite a bit too!! What FUN!!

The last day of the conference on Friday was awesome, starting with a glorious buffet breakfast and two excellent speakers! I learned a lot from both of them, especially tracking the success of activities with residents, AND dealing with difficult people! I sold a lot of puzzles on the last day and took quite a few orders too!! I was soooo sad when the conference ended! I am thankful for Debbie, Diane, Linda, Amy and Joan who I spent the most time with and I am so thrilled that they welcomed me into their circle so openly!

I thought I was passionate about my work, but I don’t think I hold a candle to these folks!! There were many in the group who had been activity professionals for more than 20 and 30 years, and several who had been doing it for more than 40 years. It was incredible to learn that one of the women in attendance had been doing it for 50 years! Holy Cow!!

I feel blessed that I had that experience this week and that I had a chance to get a lot of walking in too, even though it was more chilly than I had anticipated! I averaged more than 20,000 steps each day and during my walks I tried to process the conversations I had been in, and to recall all of the fun and laughter that I had experienced with this awesome group. When I got home on Saturday night, I felt like I had grown and flourished in so many ways…..I was so full of knowledge and ideas and grateful with the number of new friends I had made! I am thankful that I have added the awesome SCAPA members to my village and I look forward to continuing to build lots of JOY related to what I learned from them this week!! As Spring quickly approaches I hope we can all find something that helps us to Grow and Flourish because it makes life so much more beautiful!!