After over a year of social distancing, the ALI was finally able to hold some social and cultural activities for our students! We loved spending time with our students to get to know them and show them a little about Kansas City culture. Keep reading to learn about the activities we held in the Fall 2021 semester.
We started off our semester with a Welcome Party at the UMKC Student Union rooftop on September 2, 2021. The ALI has hosted a Welcome Party at the beginning of the each semester since the summer of 2018 when the staff and faculty met with our students at Pizza 51 for good pizza and fun games. Since then, we ‘ve held the party at Whole Foods on Brookside. Due to COVID, we chose to hold the activity outside on the Union rooftop. Despite the weather begin a bit gray, we all had a great time playing board and card games together.
ALI staff, faculty, and students met on the rooftop to play games and get to know each other.
Once everyone settled into their semester routine, the ALI held another activity for all students, staff, and faculty – the Annual Picnic at Loose Park!
The ALI holds a picnic at the Loose Park Shelter every year. In fall 2020, we could only invite faculty and staff due to COVID restrictions. We were very excited to be able to invite everyone – including students and their families – this year.
Usually, we ask everyone to bring food to share. However, we chose not to require sharing this year because we didn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable or worry about safety. We were surprised at how many people brought food to share anyway!
The ALI provided masks, sanitizing wipes, and hand sanitizer to keep everyone safe during the unexpected pot-luck.
Everyone enjoyed spending time together talking, eating, and playing games. And because of relaxed mask rules in Kansas City, we were able to see each others’ WHOLE FACES for the first time!
In September, a group of students and staff visited the Kansas City City Market. We started our activity by following the Riverfront Heritage trail (City Market segment) from the Town of Kansas Bridge to River Bluff Park. After our “urban hike”, we stopped visited the Hibashi House and Chicken Please for lunch. Then we visited a couple of stores in the area: Yoki novelty store, Level One Game Shop, the Opera House Coffee & Food Emporium, and Planters Seed & Spice. Although it was a hot day, it was a lovely trip to spend with new friends.
In October, we visited the Edge of Hell, a popular haunted house in Kansas City. Haunted houses are a big part of Halloween in the U.S. The one we visited, the Edge of Hell, is the oldest commercial haunted attraction in the U.S. It was established in 1975. We met on a cold night around 7pm. The house only opened at 6:30, but there was already a line down the street.
While we waited in line, there was a performer with a fire-baton to entertain us. Finally, around 10pm, we made it to the front of the line. The Edge of Hell was worth the wait, we had a great time!
The last ALI activity of the semester was the Day of Service. Our students formed groups, identified local organizations, signed up to volunteer with these organizations, and completed three hours of service! Each group of students went with one or two faculty or staff members to volunteer their time. One group went the Harvesters to help sort and pack food donations to be delivered to local food pantries and soup kitchens.
Two other groups volunteered in Habitat for Humanity Restores in the Kansas City area. One group went to their Martin City location, which is the largest ReStore in the area. They spent the day organizing and sorting items such as lamps, ceiling fixtures, tools, siding, and hardware. The other group volunteered at the Lenexa location, which was preparing for it’s grand opening. They helped get the store ready for opening the next day.
The ALI is extremely proud of all of our students, faculty, and staff who participated in our Day of Service. We hope that everyone enjoyed their time giving back to the community and that service will continue to be an important part of our program.
In the spring, we plan to hold a month of service, instead of just one day. This will give everyone more flexibility when choose when and where to volunteer. Also, in the spring, we hope to hold more activities such as ice skating, visiting the Kansas City Museum – which has been closed for over a year for renovation – a theater night, and an urban hike around the city. We look forward to spending more time with our students and showing them our wonderful city and culture in the process.