This retreat was a great start to the new SAYF year.

We began Saturday morning with opening circle followed by the talent show, which was different then when the talent show is usually scheduled, but went off quite well with the teens. We then packed burrito lunches and loaded into cars to drive about 30 minutes west of Atlanta to the Douglasville Animal Shelter, where we picked up 5 dogs through their Doggy Day Out program, and took them to Sweet Water Creek State Park. We spent a couple hours walking the dogs and swimming in the river before returning.

Before dinner, young friends had free time and played board games. After dinner, a guest speaker came in and taught us all how to carve our own stamps out of erasers, which the young friends did then printed their stamps on bandanas, cards, and bags. Julia taught SAYFers how to play wink (which hasn’t been played at SAYF in a number of years), and many SAYFers expressed excitement about playing it again in the future. Following that, SAYFers played bear, joined by many of the FANs. Overall, it was an amazing retreat!