Social Hour and Storytime Highlights: PWSA (USA) Conference Coordinator and local Paralegal join online community

Latham students continued to learn about different professions and celebrate our community on Virtual Storytime last month. Director of National Outreach Katrina Fryklund shares highlights from June below, noting, “The kiddos were particularly excited about the third week due to a slight schedule adjustment to include our second Virtual Social Hour!”

On Monday, June 15th, Paige Rivard and her son read Knock Knock Moo Who? by Brenda Ponnay. This book was an immediate hit because our humor-loving attendees can’t get enough knock-knock jokes, and many pride themselves on begin fantastic joke-tellers. Paige is the CEO of PWSA (USA), one of the most essential advocacy groups for PWS families across the country. One student asked Paige, “How did you start advocating for the rights of people with PWS?” Paige explained that her son has inspired her his entire life! Our students truly appreciated Paige and her son joining us for Storytime.

Then on Wednesday, instead of a typical Storytime, students joined us from 5 to 6 p.m. for an online Social Hour. The 25 participants introduced themselves and told a fun fact. Many talked about their pets or their favorite sports, then we opened it up the question wheel. (Remember the last Social Hour?) Well, this time we added new questions that focused on fun summertime activities!

On Friday, Jennifer Franzen, Paralegal at D’Elia & Cavanaugh in Orleans, Massachusetts, read Big Bear Hug written and illustrated by Nicholas Oldland. Students enjoyed the “environmental fable that illustrates the awesome power of a hug” . The students asked their special guest reader how she got into the field of real estate law, and Jen explained that she had grown up on Cape Cod, went off to school, and wanted to come back, work hard, and help her community. She explained that she’s known of Latham Centers her entire life because she grew up in Brewster, and thinks we have some awesome programs, students, and staff. She loved getting to know our new friends on Virtual Storytime!

We thank Paige and Jennifer for reading to our participants and representing professionals in different fields who contribute to and support our PWS community. We also give huge kudos to all the students participating in Virtual Social Hour — they have learned to communicate and support one another in such a significant way despite being limited to an online platform.