AN RI RA: KEEPING KIDS CENTRAL IN A BUTTE TRADITION

VISTA Member Cora Crecelius spent the afternoon of August 11th and 12th at Butte's An Ri Ra Festival celebrating the town's Irish Heritage.

Every year tents are set up selling food, drinks, and Irish-themed souvenirs and clothing. Events are held throughout both days featuring Irish musicians and dancers. Because Cora's Supervisor, Kid's Coalition Director Kathy Tutty, is part of the Gaelic Cultural Society she got to help out by putting together a children's tent stocked with: arts and crafts, a sandbox, and pool noodles for kids to practice "Caber Toss" (a tradition of throwing tree trunks as far as possible).

For this event Cora gathered volunteers to help collect supplies and set up an attention grabbing and engaging tent. One of their finishing touches included a wooden picture, painted by a Montana Tech college student, of a fairy and leprechaun with head holes people could put their faces through for pictures.

Being flexible is one of the core competencies of a VISTA service year - even when Kids Coalition ended up short on day-of help, Cora was able to enlist the support of other festival goers to lead activities. Turning this set back into an opportunity, Cora invited a ten-year-old girl to take over face painting when some volunteers ended up as no-shows. The new volunteer had a great time taking on this leadership role and even did a really impressive job with a four leaf clover on Cora's face.

Overall, in spite of setbacks like the smoke from Montana's forest fires, and volunteer challenges, this year's An Ri Ra was a positive experience. It was a great couple of days for Cora to introduce herself and her service site, Kids Coalition, to more Butte families and locals.