A Day to Play 3, Winter Park
“Fantastic Fantasies,” our third Day to Play event for medically fragile and special needs children, was held June 11, 2022, at Eastbrook Elementary School in Winter Park.
A huge THANK YOU to everybody who helped make this very special afternoon possible — all of our individual volunteers plus the UCF College of Nursing for their enthusiastic support, Browning's Pharmacy & Health Care for providing a Hoyer lift, Jason’s Deli in Altamonte Springs for the delicious snacks, Pasquale Palazzolo for putting on such a fun show, Onward Productions for shooting video, Central Florida Balloon Decor for the awesome decorations, Smiles Face Painting for the lovely art, and Jeremy Scott Photography for the incredible pictures!
A Day to Play 2, Oviedo
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Day to Play 2, “Outer Space Adventure,” was held Oct. 28, 2021 at CrossLife Church in Oviedo.
We couldn’t have done it without all of our individual volunteers plus:
A Day to Play 1 Orlando/UCF
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The first Day to Play was held July 17, 2021, at the UCF FAIRWINDS Alumni Center, in partnership with the UCF College of Nursing.
Nursing students had the opportunity to work with medically special children while simultaneously growing as nurses. They also provided an extra measure of safety for all children in attendance.
During the event, we set up numerous stations where medically special children and their siblings were able to play, interact and learn. Starting in the art area, we created sensory tubes, colored and had a station where we encouraged the siblings to find their superpowers! Some siblings may not understand why their brothers and/or sisters must do activities differently or require more attention than they do, and our goal was to provide them a space of their own to work through this if they desired to do so.
In our next area, we watched a magic show and had a dance party in the middle of the room. Our friends, Pasquale and Invisible Ink, showed us many amazing tricks and balloon animals that blew our MINDS! While we encouraged enrichment throughout the event, we also encouraged fun as we believe these go hand in hand!
Within our living aquarium, we played with shaving cream and kinetic sand while surrounded by bubbles and sea creatures. We floated around the room pretending to swim with all the different sea animals and built sandcastles with blue and brown sand. The kids loved drawing and spelling on the table within the cool, soft shaving cream! It was abundantly clear that everyone had a favorite station — including the staff here at FFSC!