Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success - Old Ottawa South

Page 6 The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR JUL/AUG 2008
By Gabriel Gosselin
If you’ve ever walked into the
Firehall between 4pm and 6pm on
a weekday you will know of the
apparent chaos that is After-Four. I
have had the privilege to work in the
After-Four program for five years now
and can attest that there are times when
the pandemonium is breathtaking.
There are dodge balls sailing through
the air, the rolling thunder of sixty
children’s excited voices, the glitter of
thousands of sparkles wafting through
the air and the occasional smell of
burning cookies. In this mêlée of
bodies, noises, activities and programs
can seem very over-whelming. There
is however much more to be seen if
one is willing to look a little deeper.
Beneath this veneer of dodge ball and
Popsicle-house crafts there is a subtle
education going on.
Three years ago a few counsellors
took it upon themselves to raise the
bar for dodge ball games. Ian Beck
McNeil, Steve Windsor and I began
our series of games loosely themed
“Famous Battles from History”. After
reliving Agincourt and Waterloo one
of the children asked which, if any,
battle did the French win? Deciding
that “Famous French Military
Brief Notes From the Firehall
Defeats” did not have as nice a ring
to it as our previous title, we promptly
set about playing out the Battle of
Hastings. During these games, we
would explain the historical context
of the battles prior to the game and
the historical outcome afterwards.
The games where inevitably designed
to mimic the real-life considerations
of the battle, often favouring one side
over the other. There were times when
the children’s ability and willingness
to play out their roles was truly
astounding. To see twenty children
march in block formation down the
length of the Mainhall while under
fire from three sides to the tune of
“Scotland the Brave” and canon fire
sound effects bordered on the surreal.
The fact that many of the children
would periodically yell out “Charge!
Forward!” was a nice touch.
There were of course times when
the children got too into the spirit of
the game, such as when the Battle of
Agincourt raged, there were taunts of
“Frog!” and “Limey” thrown around
much to everyone’s bemusement.
A more sombre note was struck
when moments into the massive reenactment
of Stalingrad three-quarters
of the participants were lying on the
ground crying out “Medic”. That
After-four Programming:
More Than Meets The Eye
moment more than the others gave
the participants something to consider
when we went over the historical
outcome of that brutal battle. The
lesson that day struck home.
One of the great joys of this job is
when you find yourself listening to a
child tell you something that you have
taught them earlier. I usually dislike
being corrected, but had to laugh
aloud when I was sharply rebuked for
failing to name King Harkonen as the
Norwegian King who fought Harold
prior to the Battle of Hastings. Thanks
Jacob.
The educational content doesn’t
stop with dodge ball though. Last
year Caitlin gave After-Four an
International Cooking Club. While
there was the obligatory stop over in
Mexico for delicious nachos, I defy
anyone reading this to try to make
sushi with ten young children and
succeed.
There is in fact a long and storied
history of counsellors shooting
for the moon (and touching down
on occasion). All of the creative
disciplines have been well represented
in After-Four; visual art, drama, dance
and literature. Tom Goodings ran a
multi-session program of Calligraphy
(covering Gothic Lettering to
A Retrospective Of After-four: Gabriel Gosselin Farewell
by Gabriel Gosselin
My earliest memories of the
Firehall stem from a PD day
I attended as a child. I was
cowering at the time in a mat-fort when
from across the dank, sweaty darkness
a plaintive voice said to me; “Gab, I
think I farted”… Thus my career at
the Firehall began with a whimper
and not a bang. I was crouched in a
small (yet nigh indestructible) fort
of mats in the Fitness Room, playing
one of the Firehall’s hallmark games.
As counsellor-thrown balls smashed
against the walls, my comrade in arms
and I tried to outlast our need for clean
oxygen. It is worth noting that ‘Pride’
as a cause of self-inflicted harm has
a very early on-set in males. At ten
years old we were determined to rely
on our grit (and well constructed fort)
to win that game. It would be many
years before I would return again to
the Firehall.
The story of how I ended up
working at the Firehall is not so
uncommon as it is instructive of the
Gosselin Farewell on the parch of the OOS Firehall Community Centre
Japanese kanji). This year David B-
H and Alexie mounted a production
of children’s theatre. Not to be outdone,
Aletha and Jessica ran a Dance
(followed by Yoga) program for the
girls with consistently happy and high
attendance. There was a program of
musical appreciation and creative
response that drew a small but faithful
crowd. This is not to say that the
After-Four has a liberal arts bias.
The mechanical and scientific are
represented well enough.
Paul has routinely forced the
kids to design a functional car out
of recyclable materials. Good luck
with that one at home. I once ran an
activity where we made catapults out
of seashells, tape and a cloths-pin (to
great success). Jesse has achieved
a dedicated following of children
determined to figure out whether a
given object will “Sink or Float”.
These are just some of the
myriad activities that take place at
After-Four year in and year out. Not
mentioned here are the Boys-only Spa
days (“What have you done to our
sons?” asked a parent), the staging of
Shakespeare and recycled-art projects.
Next time you step into an activity,
take the time to ask about what’s
going on. You might be surprised.
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