Claire Caparanga

May 13, 2024

Blog Journal #4

As of May 13, 2024, I’m already in my sixth week of volunteering. The last two
Wednesdays were both PLC which gave me time to rest and freshen up before my volunteer.
Thankfully, I got to the office right on time. Last May 1st, we were expecting a few kids to tag
along with Jake (his nickname for now) in the program. However, yet again only Jake showed
up for the program, which he likes since he doesn’t do well in a group of kids. That week, we
started by creating a routine for Jake to get used to once he arrived at the office. Our most
important rule is washing our hands before eating snacks before starting the program. Jake
loves healthy snacks, especially fruits and he requested strawberries and bananas for next
week’s meeting. After a little meal, we got Jake to add his handprint on the PEACE program tree
mural art. The tree is a mural art painted on one of the walls in the office to allow the kids who
joined the program, to leave a small remembrance and signify that they were part of the
program. One thing that I remember my mentor Rena mentioning is that the existing handprints
on the wall signify the kids who have each gone through different adversities. But she
specifically told Jake that each handprint is different and unique. Afterward, we started the next
activity which was making a collage. Rena prepared precut pictures from magazines or old
textbooks that are easy to use for a collage. Since Jake’s favorite colors are orange and blue,
he had an orange-colored theme in his collage where he picked any cutout pictures that had a
hint of orange. We also allowed Jake to go through an old magazine to cut and find any pictures
that piqued his interest and wanted to add to his collage. Since there was still a small time to
spare, we had a drawing contest since Jake told us he likes to draw and do arts and crafts. We
had three rounds of the friendly drawing competition on themes that Jake wanted us to draw
and alternating the judges between us three per round.

Last Wednesday, May 8, was another PLC which gave me time to rest after school
before heading to volunteer. I got to the office on time and did our usual routine with Jake, wash
hands and eat snacks before starting the program. That week, we only did a few activities but
somewhat similar to what we did the other week. We had a big poster paper with 2 outlined
hands that were labeled “helping hands” and “hurting hands”. We asked Jake to name about 10
things that helping and hurting hands do, writing each one on a finger. After the activity, Rena
wanted Jake to make a mother’s day card for his mom so we spent time helping him decorate
the card. Me and Jake found some temporary LEGO tattoos and stuck them onto the back of
our hands to get matching tattoos. The last two weeks were a tiring but eventful week of
volunteering for me.

One of the activities that I really found interesting was using bubbles to teach different breathing
techniques. Rena taught Jake the proper pace of breathing when blowing bubbles. When you
blow too hard on the wand, you won’t be able to create bubbles but if you blow and exhale
gently you’ll be able to make a decent amount of bubbles. This activity’s significance is to teach
kids how to achieve coordinated breathing when experiencing episodes of panic attacks or
anxious states. Rena’s guide on blowing bubbles is to (1) close your eyes, (2) deeply inhale
while imagining your favorite scent, let it be food, flowers, or perfume, (3) and next is to exhale
slowly to avoid the struggle of catching your breath. This activity taught me a friendly and
effective way to teach kids who experience panic attacks proper breathing techniques. The idea
of using bubbles really intrigued me since it was fascinating to learn how a simple toy or act of
playing can be of so much help. After the program ended, I asked Rena how she came up with
the idea, and she ended up telling me how effective it has been with the kids who’ve joined the
PEACE program.

By the end of this week, I plan to catch up on missing assignments for this class while also
continuously working on updating my video diary. Since I’m constantly filming my weekly
volunteer work, I should stay on top of updating my video diary to avoid missing any important
or specific details that I want to include in my final output. For the past two weeks, I’ve had
multiple weekly tests on all my academic subjects making it hard for me to make time for my
capstone project. I still find balancing my workload between classes quite challenging since I
have to stay on top of multiple things all at once. This is why it has been a stressful past two
weeks for me especially with finals coming up soon. I anticipate another stressful upcoming
week since there are only a number of days left of school and the workload will only get harder
from here. This week I’m trying to be ahead of everything to make sure I have enough time to
study and prepare for all my classes to avoid cramming.