This past Saturday, a group of Washington University NF Center coordinators, St. Louis Children’s Hospital therapists and Club NF families traveled to Gatch Lake near Vandalia, Il to support FuNFest for the second year in a row. The 4th annual FuNFest, a fundraiser held by Amanda and Brian Walk, is a community event which includes games for kids, face painting, a bake sale and a silent and live auction. All money raised at this event is donated to fund research at the Washington University Neurofibromatosis (NF) Center.
This year, the Club NF team brought an obstacle course, balance boards and craft stations for the play-based therapy session at FuNFest. The rope jumps, balance beams and ball toss relay enabled attendees to hone their gross motor skills, and the balance boards proved to be a very popular challenge for both children and adults. Additionally, everyone strengthened their fine motor skills by making American flags, Halloween cards and Rainbow Loom bracelets at the craft stations.
As in previous years, Cow Patty Bingo was one of the highlights of FuNFest! The cow was led onto the field which had been marked with a numbered grid, and within approximately 30 minutes, the attendees who purchased the grid the cow dropped his ‘chip’ on won $1000!
We want to thank the Walk Family for allowing Club NF to join in on the fun! It was a chilly, windy day but we had a great time working on our fine motor, gross motor and balancing skills with friends; new and old. We look forward to FuNFest 2015!
Club NF is a FREE, bimonthly, play-based therapy program for children with NF1 in kindergarten through 8th grade. We participate in thoughtfully planned activities to help strengthen skills often delayed in children with NF1.
Written by guest blogger, Kirsten Brouillet
Washington University NF Center Clinical Research Asst., Club NF Event Coordinator