It is almost over and it was awesome. Our tour of duty, Sept. 08 through May 09 concludes this Saturday evening. It has been quite a year. We have seen weeks with solid numbers of kids and weeks that were pretty slim. We have seen changed lives. We have connected with and gotten to know many great kids. We will send those 5th graders off to Quest and we will await the fresh faces of the new 4th graders who are so eager to experience the Factory. They'll begin in a week, we'll be back in Sept. When I say we, I mean the Stewarts (with Momica possibly still on baby hiatus to start), myself, possibly my wife Pam, and Timberly Miller. I will talk to Tim and Zach as well, and I expect they might re-sign for another stint, or at least I hope so. Kevin is even in talks with some former leaders about getting back on the team. 
They'll be much welcomed as we are bringing in a huge group of incredible 4th graders. I know many of them personally and they are the best. Next year will be really fun.
This Saturday I will be absent, attending the dance recital my Erin has worked so hard for since last September. Kevin and Monica are scheduled to be there and I am hopeful Tim and Zach will be there as well. I plan to keep connected this summer
as much as possible. I know I am looking forward to the Stewarts relocation from Bloomington back to Peoria next month, making getting together so much easier.
As far as the programming this Saturday, it is mostly large group with the nicely tall in stature Gary Webb running the show. Small group time will consist of signing and passing out certificates to the exiting 5th graders and enjoying their company one last time. Pretty easy and should be a very satisfying evening.
I wished the timing was different for the dance recital, but it is what it is. The end of school, the break from dance, the conclusion of the track season...all things that are really welcome events in my little family. It has been a very long and difficult 2009 so far, laced with some fantastic moments. But man it will be nice to take a break. We aren't on easy street. Pam begins radiation soon, barely recovering from chemo. And Josh is juggling a couple of baseball teams, so we are finding ourselves at ballfields a lot right now. But there is a really cool side to that. We see DL kids at the games. I wondered last Saturday if the kid my son collided with while sliding into 2nd base in Dunlap was a DL kid. I had a lot of time to wonder as Josh stood safely on 2nd base, having just slid over the outstretched arm of the 2nd baseman, breaking it. Yep, this fuzzy pic (focused on the fence), was taken during the game delay after the moment that both boys will talk about for years, Josh about coming out unscathed, the other boy about the time his arm was broken.
Thank you for serving this year. KEEP IN TOUCH! I will miss you all and Discoveryland so much this summer (so much so that I might show up to serve a time or two).
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