Youth in Action: April Activities with the Mimico Multicultural Club

The Mimico Multicultural Club has spent the month of April training for the MudGirl Marathon that they will be participating in in June. In order to keep the girls moving, we have been doing a lot of active games and fun, physical activities. 

We spent one program day inventing obstacle courses. The group had to be creative and create their course, then we all completed it!

Below: our volunteer, Robyn, leading the group through some conditioning that turned into an intense game of tag!

Another day we finally started get nice weather, so, of course, the group went outside! We did some light warm ups and ran some laps around the playground. Then we played an awesome game of capture the flag. Everybody wins when your having so much fun!

April has finally given us nice enough weather to move the program outdoors. On this program day, we did a nature scavenger hunt at the Lakeshore Trail. The group had to be creative and find shapes (curves, teardrops, S-curves, squares, etc.) in the natural landscape. 

Of course we had to stop for some photo-ops. 

After our long nature walk, the girls relaxed at the playground swings. 

YOUTH in ACTION: Day trip to the Dundas Valley Waterfalls

The Youth in Action Team spent an amazing day hiking through the Dundas Valley Conservation Area. We met with a youth group from #AccessAlliance and took our own #ParkBus to the breathtaking trails in Hamilton.  Our group of youth did so well and the views were so beautiful that the four-hour hike seemed to end too quickly!

Playing a game of frisbee while we wait for the bus.

Off we go!

Making our way over the rocks, and here we found our first waterfall!

Taking a break in front of this natural beauty to have our lunch.

The Youth in Action group taking a photo op!

Our amazing guides, Zoe and Hany, had a scavenger hunt prepared and they gave us really interesting information about Canadian nature and made the tour so fun and relaxed!

After a short hike, we made it to the second waterfall!

Above: Charlie looking just as beautiful as the waterfall.  

Below: Teeva pulling some silly poses.

Along the hike, we stopped at a beautiful viewpoint to rest and play some games that the tour guides love. I think it is safe to say we all LOVED them too as our laughter echoed through the forest.

 Thank you so much #ParkBus and #NatureLink (and especially, Hany and Zoe) for making this event possible and so enjoyable. It was such an enriching, peaceful and fun experience and we can't wait until our next forest adventure!!!

Youth in Action @ the BioBlitz Festival!

Youth in Action spent an amazing Saturday at the BioBlitz Festival at Rouge Urban National Park. The purpose of this festival is to bring together taxonomic experts, citizen scientists and the general public to inventory all species (plants, animals, fungi and more) in a particular area over a  24 hour period. Participants record all the organisms they find, then experts verify their identity. This means that we get a better understanding of the native species in our Canadian wild and are better equipped to protect our local wildlife. 

 Opening ceremonies and tattoos!

Then, we headed over to do some rock-climbing!

 

 It was a long day and our phones were dying, but no worries, there was a bike-powered charging station!

 We visited all the educational booths and learned about local wildlife and how to protect our native species.

 We learned about birds of prey and even got to play with snakes and other reptiles!

Last, but not least, we went on a beautiful nature hike lead by Jacqueline, our Parks Canada guide. Who knew there was such a beautiful National park hidden in our urban home. 

Thanks #ParksCanada and #CanadianWildlifeFederation for making this event possible. And thanks to #ParkBus and #NatureLink for including the #YOUTHinACTION team. We had such a great time and learned so much about Canadian and Torontonian wildlife!