Date: June 17&18
Location: Mitake, Tokyo
Participants: (Saturday) 13 campers, 5 care workers, 8 LITs, 5 Mirai no Mori staff, 2 sponsors / (Sunday) 20 campers, 6 care workers, 7 LITs, 6 Mirai no Mori staff, 11 sponsors

Sponsor: Avery Dennison & Avanade

Program:

On a midsummer day in June, we held a craft program along the Tama River in Mitake. It was a lively program with campers from multiple care homes, sponsors and many LITs.

In the morning, we held an orientation in a room filled with flags of various countries and fun music, a typical Mirai-no-Mori atmosphere to welcome everyone, and then we divided into teams.

After an art quiz, it was finally time to go outside for nature art! The ideas were all full of individuality, from wetting stones in water to change their colors, to cooking with interesting looking stones as meat.

After the delicious lunch we finished eating while listening to the sound of the river, we gathered branches, stones, and other materials for craft time. Campers found some biwa that had fallen down around the tree, some items from the nature art project, and even a bottle of soy sauce from the bento lunch! We returned to the room after collecting various materials.

In the afternoon, each camper became quiet and concentrated on making a one-of-a-kind amulet, making full use of saws, glue guns, and other tools that are usually don’t have access to. Since the number of tools was limited, there were many campers who were considerate of each other and offered to take turns, and many campers actively cleaned up with responsibility to stop materials from getting messy.

“Courage was my goal for the day, and I was able to be brave to present my team’s nature art in front of everyone!” by camper

“I couldn’t come up with a good idea when making the one-of-a-kind amulet, which was a little frustrating, so now I want to try harder and be brave enough to try different things next time!” by camper

“I was very impressed with all the different ideas that campers, big campers and sponsors came up with! They were all beyong my imagination!” by LIT

“I was impressed with myself for being able to concentrate and enjoy myself to the fullest when doing the craft. I learned a lot from the Mirai no Mori staff, whose energy and way of expressing themselves was so cool!” by sponsor

“I was very impressed with how the campers were able to make the most of their ideas in nature.” by care worker

“I was very happy to be able to talk with care workers from other care homes for the first time in a while at Mirai no Mori programs. It was very inspirational to see how the children from other care homes were doing and how they differed from the children at my care home.” by care worker

Thank you to all the sponsors and everyone who made this weekend a special experience.