This was the week second of Adaptive Swimming. This Saturday, I parked behind the building, but nobody was there yet. Few minutes later, other people started arriving, but the front door was locked for some reason. We got in through the back door that was open already for us. I forgot to mention we also had other volunteers from Ohio State University belonging to Physical Therapy Majors. As soon as they came in, we started gathering the equipment for the team level 1. This time I was going to get into water. The first team usually has 45 minutes to work with. All of the individuals have different disabilities. At the beginning, it's hard to get them into the water, so they need some demonstrations to fulfill the purpose. It is not recommended to take them into the water if they resist.  In that case, we have to demonstrate our self getting into the water repeatedly or we have to demonstrate some toys getting into water. When you get them into the water, we are supposed to get them to make bubbles and make efforts for swimming. After this 45 minutes session, the instructor takes over and take all of the individuals to the other pool. In that session, we are just supposed to watch and be around them, if they need help with anything. After this, we start moving to the next session of the practice of Adaptive Swimmers. The very first individual from the team was Mark to arrive. I was told by Ray to help him with the practice. He was preparing for his upcoming swimming competition, so we were tracking his sprint timing. After all of the activities, Meghan, another volunteer, got me to sign a waiver and we put all of the equipment back to its place. Everyone said goodbyes and started leaving. Overall, it was great Saturday and staying in water for two hours was a blessing for my body. 

Wheel Chair Rugby practice at Schiller community center was another amazing volunteering experience for me. As per our usual weekly zoom meeting, Keiana got me signed up for this event. This was basically a wheelchair rugby practice session. The session went on from 11AM to 3PM. When i got there, I first met Joey, he introduced me to all of the other people. All of us were around twelve people for the session. Some of them were, professional wheelchair rugby players. Around 11.30 we started kicking off the session with a little warm up and stretching. After that we started doing some drills back and forth in the court. It looked easy at first few drills but it got really hard for me to catch up with the other members at 5 round drills. After that, all of the players decided to take a water break. After the water break, we decided to have a match and one more player joined us for the match. Running a rugby wheelchair is not easy as it looks from the outside and on top of that being a newbie is completely different. After the session my shoulders and neck were completely soar and exhausted. However, we lost the match. After the practice session, we circled up in the court for cool down and stretching. All of the players gave me the chance to break the session at the end, but things got a little funny. As they told me to count one to three and call  break at three, but i fumbled in between the moment. One of the players said, "Kamaljeet, this wasn't awesome but it was okay". All of us laughed and left the courtyard. Apart from all of that, the wheelchair rugby practice session was an insightful experience for me. Because, the place I come from, para-athletes do not get enough chance to thrive. This session gave me a better understanding about the lives of para-athletes and i got to know them better.

I had the another opportunity to volunteer at Adaptive Aquatics Swim Club in Columbus. This was a short volunteer activity from 8 AM to 10 PM. As per our usual meeting, Keiana referred this opportunity to me. I signed up for this activity the same day. So, in the morning of the Saturday, i went a little early, wandered around a little bit until the time. At 8'o clock I went to the desk and asked for volunteer activity. Employee at the desk guided me to the manager Ray. Ray introduced me to the other volunteers as well when I met her. After that, Ray asked one of the employees to introduce other protocols to me. Then, I met Eddie, she asked me first if I could get into water with the children, that day i was not ready for the water, So, she got me to help with the equipment arrangement and the attendance sheet. The whole activity was divided into three parts. The first one was to help level 1 children, to get them into the water and make bubbles. The second one involved volunteering around level 2 children in a 15 feet pool to help them. The third activity was to be with the team preparing for competition. As i was not in the water, I got a chance to talk to all of the children's parents and I was amazed to see their support. All the time, I was taking care of the sheet and the chores outside of the pool. As the team members were arriving, I was marking off that attendance sheet. Eddie was with me for the whole session. She made sure I understood everything about the Adaptive swimming. After going through the whole session, everybody said goodbyes and left quickly and also told me to get into water next time.

Volunteering at Schiller community center was my first ever volunteering experience.  As per our usual zoom meeting, Keiana, my mentor helped me sign up for the event.  The event went on from 9AM to 3PM. I reached the place a little early and met few people who worked over there.  After having small talks with the employees of the center, I found out that this was the annual event that is held every year to engage attract young individuals' interest in sports. However, If I talk about the event, there was a lot of stuff needed to be settled before the event starts. I contributed in setting up the tables, organizing the equipment for the event. After that, me and my co-volunteer Mark, were assigned to handle the bicycle smoothie maker, which was fun. There was a blender on the backseat of the bicycle, connected with the peddles, the more you peddle the more you blend your smoothie. Every young and old individual at the event rode the bicycle and enjoyed the smoothies. Apart from that, there were individuals representing different institutions such as Ohio State University, Columbus Fire department, Columbus Police department etc. Around 2'o clock we started wrapping up the equipment. By the time, me and Mark washed down the equipment and put everything back in its place. I enjoyed talking to Mike meanwhile, he shared a lot of his life experiences. After wrapping up everything, I said goodbye to everybody and started driving home. Overall, it was quite a memorable experience for me.