Tag: Connor

Summer City Clean-up Prairie Ridge Centennial

These week we were cleaning a section of Prairie Ridge park and an area around Centennial High School. It is probably a good sign that Prairie Ridge was actually pretty clean and didn’t have a lot of trash to pick up. The area around Centennial had a significant amount of trash and broken glass near the parking lot, so we were able to make a bigger impact there.

Summer City Clean-up Promenade Park

This week’s clean-up was around Promenade Park. This area was recently used for the town’s fireworks display and Summerfest. Some of the taller grass and tree areas were definitely in need of cleaning. If we were competing by weight, Devon probably would have won due to the complete brick that he found.

Summer City Clean-up DMACC

This week, we are cleaning the trail around DMACC Lake. We were excited to be joined by several children and families from my piano studio. Many of the children do not know each other well and one way to relieve performing anxiety during recitals is knowing you have a friend in the audience. So we paired up the children as well as the parents during this clean-up, giving them a mission, on top of cleaning up the park, to find out what they have in common with each other.

We are very thankful for the children and their families taking their time to join us this evening making our city cleaner.

Summer City Clean-up Georgetown

We conducted our Summer City Clean-up in Georgetown Park today. This was three days after the 4th of July. We were surprised by the amount of fireworks remnants found in the park. We spent an hour picking them up, and we were not even half way through the park. We decided to return on Saturday morning to continue our clean-up.

While we were excited to have our bags filled, it felt bittersweet as it makes us question why our fellow residents were littering our parks. Our clean-up activities proved to be an enlightening experience. As on days where we don’t find much trash, we may feel uneventful, while we should be feeling grateful that our city is clean with the help of our responsible residents.

Summer City Clean-up Lakeshore Drive

Our Summer City Clean-up brought us to Lakeshore Drive this week. Most of the trash were found in and near the pond. We hope the ducks and frogs were happier with a cleaner pond.

Summer City Clean-up

This summer, we decided to initiate a program to clean up our city every week. Our Summer City Clean-up begins today along the trail on North Ankeny Boulevard. While the trail was quite clear, there were lots of trash along the road. It was also very kind that the garbage man had offered to take our trash.

Ankeny Community Chorus Spring Performance 2023

The Ankeny Community Chorus had approached Ankeny Centennial High School’s band director, Mr. Hook, to look for a cellist to accompany their performance. Mr. Hook has always been wonderful. He has helped us in registering Devon every year for the All State Festival and keeping us updated on the event by sending us audition times and passing us materials. There is no orchestra at Centennial and there are no cello parts in our band, but Mr. Hook is always gracious to work with us, treating Devon like he was one of his band students. We heard from our friends that he would even include Devon’s name in his announcement during a band concert when congratulating the All Staters. Mr. Hook had given our contact to the chorus and while they were looking for a cellist, they were also looking for a flute player for the higher part. We had suggested maybe Connor could play the violin for the higher part. The boys met with the chorus and they loved them. What an unique experience to hear the sound of your instrument with singing voices! The boys had a great time rehearsing and performing with the chorus.

The Lion King Musical

We were fortunate to get tickets for the very popular traveling show of The Lion King. The costumes, props, and music bring a new dimension to the movies that we love.

Side-by-side symphony performance

Every year, the youth symphony has the opportunity to perform alongside with the Des Moines Symphony. This weekday matinee performance is usually attended by 4th graders to introduce them to orchestral music and instruments, as they begin participating in band and orchestral activities the next year. The side-by-side concert had been cancelled for the past two years due to covid. Hence this is the first year Devon gets to participate in the event. It was a thrilling experience.