Collbran JCC presents “Winter Wonderland” every year. The gym is transformed through winter themed decorations. There are games set up throughout the gym such as a fish pond, skee ball, miniature basketball, miniature golf, throwing a football through a net, face painting and on and on. Students dress up as princesses, elves, Elvis, Thing One and Thing Two and other cartoon characters.
On the first day of this two day event, the local elementary school comes at two separate times. The community who have children not yet in school, also come. They play all the games with students and decorate sugar cookies. The students put on a holiday skit and sing songs. Then Santa arrives (Mr. Russ Sibert, our welding instructor and owner of an impressive white beard!” The students get to meet Santa and receive a small gift. It is a joy to watch our students and the little ones have so much fun together.
On the evening of 12/10/15, the center hosts a community dinner. The culinary students and staff including Mr. DeWade Jones, Ms. Michelle Strange and Ms. Valerie Tucker, provide a wonderful meal. Student leaders sit with community members and get to talk about the Job Corps and how they are doing. Center Director, Gove Aker, gives welcoming remarks and the Community Relations Council (CRC) takes over from there. The CRC talks about the past year of JC and the community. They point out all the highlights and projects we have done together. They finish by inviting others to join the CRC.
After dinner, the community goes over to Winter Wonderland where they can participate in the games and have some fun. They get to meet more students, hear students sing and watch the skit.
The next afternoon starting at i:00, role reversal occurs. All the students get to play the games, get their face painted, compete in a graham cracker house decorating contest. The staff run all the games and there are drawings throughout the afternoon for prizes. In the evening is the final dance of the year.
The students will be leaving for winter break and this is a memorable send-off. Everyone participates and we all enjoy ourselves. Who doesn’t want to play games, interact with one another and have fun?!