Let's Get Creative!
Red is often a colour associated with danger or concern, but here at the Dolphin Centre when we see a “Red Day” on our rota, the opposite is true. That’s because a red day means activity day – for one whole day we get to put our creative minds to good use and hang out with visitors doing something fun. What’s not to like?!
Our red days run throughout the summer holidays, with each of us getting a good share of days to get our teeth into. Although plenty of red days will still be going on this year, my allotted days have now all finished, so I thought I’d share the ones that I have done and give a big thanks to everyone who came along and joined in!
Getting crafty – often on a red day we like to do some easy and fun crafts, usually in the visitor centre. This is especially handy if the weather isn’t great! In my first session we coloured in pictures of different animals using crayons and bubble painting. It got a bit messy at times, but messiness is usually a measure of how much fun you’re having! Throughout the different craft days we also made little bookmarks with animal pompoms and personalised decorations, and transformed paper plates into a selection of different animals including fish, ladybirds and (with the help of some pipe cleaners and crepe paper) jellyfish!
Getting chatty – Another nice way to spend a red day, is to use it as a chance to chat more to you guys, and help to explain in more detail some of the bigger issues, or wildlife watching skills that you can use on site. For example I ran a captivity day, with a focus on our current campaign to ask Richard Branson to stop selling holidays to Seaworld. It was great to chat to so many of you about your experiences and views, and also to see how skilled you were at our game of “Pin the Fin on the Orca”! We had fun thinking about why we liked dolphins on the Dolphin Appreciation Day and as the weather improved for my last two days, I took the opportunity to convert Shorewatch Hill into Birdwatch Hill! (Well, I shared it).
It’s been lovely to see so many of you during my red days, and hopefully you have enjoyed them as well. As I mentioned earlier though, the red days are far from over! There are plenty more activity days still to come, and the other volunteers run a range of crafts and information days too – so pop in and see us and you too could be making some origami animals, necklaces, kites, magnets, egg box animals and looking out for dolphins from Shorewatch Hill. We’ll see you there!