Fall, Festive, and Fun! Harlem Lacrosse - Boston: Donald McKay Girls
When people first hear the name “Harlem Lacrosse” they automatically correlate that all things (trips, practices, study halls, etc) include lacrosse only. However, one of the great opportunities that Harlem Lacrosse can offer to their students is also enrichment activities. Maryanna Leonard, known as Coach Mern to her coworkers and students, was able to offer an enrichment activity on Saturday September 21st to twenty of the Harlem Lacrosse Donald McKay School Girl student athletes. The team traveled to Coach Mern’s home town of Woodstock, CT. With Coach Mern beginning the Donald Mckay Girls Program in Boston just a year ago, she wanted to start this fall season with a strong team bonding trip to set the tone for the new Harlem Lacrosse year. Woodstock, CT is the place where Coach Mern learned to love Fall so where better for a fall festivity field trip.
The first stop on the trip was Woodstock Orchards. There the Mckay girls picked apples, many for the first time, and learned about a career in running a successful orchard. The girls also picked out pumpkins to paint. The owners of the orchard allowed the girls to even pick peaches for free and eat them directly off the trees. Made for very many sticky smiles as the McKay girls went off to their next stop.
Second stop on the trip was to paint pumpkins at Coach Mern’s childhood home. While painting the girls shared ideas in designs, colors, and talked about where they all came from since they were at the place where Coach Mern was from. Once finished with the painting the girls lead their own mini lacrosse practice in the yard and enjoyed some pizza. Unfortunately, Coach Mern could not bring home wet pumpkins so while they were waiting for them to dry the girls set off on their last fall festivity stop, the Woodstock Agriculture Fair.
At the fair the students got to meet farmers, small business owners, florists, and even some live animals. A brave group of girls even went into the horse pen and groomed and fed the horses. This was happening while another group of girls were posted up at a tent answering trivia on dairy farming. They learned about dairy farming in the Dairy Barn while they were visiting some cows and asking the farmers very clear and specific questions about their career. Many of the students went home with prizes from trivia. After the girls got their fill of the meaning of and careers in agriculture (and of candy), the girls went and picked up their pumpkins and were on their way back to the city.
The day began with 20 girls of various ages and lacrosse experience levels (seven returning players from the Mckay’s first year of programming and thirteen newly registered players) loading up into two coach driven vans and making the 1.5 hour trip to Woodstock. The van that Coach Mern was driving began with a newly registered 8th grader saying “okay let’s get to know each other” and began with questions for the whole car. This set the tone for the first trip of the fall to not only have the girls get to know each other, but having the day filled with questions. The day ended with students who had never met before the trip, sharing usernames and numbers, stories and quotes like "It was a day I’ll never forget", "Today was such a fun day", "I want a cow as a pet" and more on our way home! It was a great first trip with many more to come.
A special thanks goes to Woodstock Orchards for the apple, pumpkin, and peaches picking. Also to the Leonard family for hosting the girls at their home for lacrosse, pumpkin painting, and lunch. And finally a thank you to the local organizations present at the Woodstock Agriculture Fair for showing the girls how and why they should celebrate agriculture.
