| Show 10A Standard-Examin- Monday Oct 12 1981 er WSC prof firm believer — J in need for family play Soroptimists Q By CECILY MARKLAND Special to Standard-Examin- er Gary Willden believes in the old adage — families which play to- gether stay together Willden a professor at Weber State College in the department of health physical education and recreation conducted a New Games playshop at the recent Families Alive Conference held at WTeber State Willden calls his demonstrations “playshops not workshops” because they offer a time for people “to experience new ways to play together” he says Play in the family is especially important says Willden “For a family to have solidarity good recreation is important He encourages parents to be more involved in playing with their children “Games camping organized sports any kind of recreation is a wholesome and healthful thing for family relationships” says Willden “Parents need to be more involved beginning in infancy to stimulate infants through play” he says And Willden explains that while many people realize the importance of playing with their children as toddlers by the time they get to be teens parents quit playing with them “Families can and should play together for many reasons “The whole thing about play is that we drop inhibitions and facades and become more real Kids become more real to parents and parents become more real to kids” says Willden Parents need to initiate times when they and their children can sit down together says Willden He encourages parents to use board games such as Risk or Monopoly as leisure activities These games or doing projects or hobbies together like building a model airplane “become good opportunities to talk to break the ice and get interaction going” says Willden Willden subscribes to the New Games philosophy of play “Much more than a list of games a book of games or a gimmick New Games is an attitude toward play” explains literature put out by the New Games Foundation “It is the attitude that people can and should play together for the fun of it get in touch with their own innate play- fulness” “New Games means permission to run and jump because it feels good to touch others in a way to release physicnon-threateni- al aggression without hurting anyone to celebrate our differences and to rejoice in our physical beings” the literature continues New Games can be divided into three types of games The first are known as soft war games “Soft war conceived by Steward Brand offers a safe outlet for aggression by providing a controlled contained cushioned way for people to play hard and fair with nobody hurt” writes the New Games Foundation The soft war games are limited for family use says Willden He says it isn’t appropriate for parents to use with kids but when played between siblings the results can be helpful Willden demonstrates an example of soft war using Boffers styrofoam swords that can be used to hit spank beat bang-o- n and poke other people for a maximum of aggressive outlet with no one being hurt “Give two arguing kids some boffers and let them go at it” he says The result invariably is “kids come up laughing with their problems resolved” says Willden Tailored for the entire family are the type of games known as creative play The New Games Foundation says “creative play conceived by George Leonard emphasizes ways of freeing people to enter into play more completely to find out more about who they can be” Creative play means making up a game inventing a game to fit your family or changing a game to fit your particular needs From the New Games Training Manual the following ideas for changing a game are given “Look ‘slow and boring’ at your game By BECKY CAIRNS may mean too many players ‘hard’ may mean the boundaries are too large or interaction too restrictive ‘dangerous’ might be a clue to a need for different equipment or safer environment ‘no fun’ could be a lack of any ritual or fantasy in the game” The manual says that once the problems are identified one should be selected and changed closing in the boundaries inventing a little ritual adding a fun or fantasy artificially ‘handicapping’ the players adding (or eliminating) scoring there are many options Standard-Examin- Afton Jackson compares the work of Sorop-timiInternational to apple seeds “You can count the seeds in an apple but " ' you can’t count the ap- st ' pies in a something that just K V" i “Smaug-the-dragon- 1 can’t be measured” Mrs Jackson is a sustaining member of the worldwide organization tiffiShe joined the Ogden club in 1950 Soroptimist Interna- p tional a service club for '4 executive business and women 'professional 60 was founded Steal-the-baco- years eye-han- objects etc” trailing ago this month The club was chartered in 1939 Og-Jgld- Hf Willden from all the mischievous little Hobbits The “jewels” can be anything such as a bean bag a ball or any small object The dragon can’t hold on to or touch the jewels The Hobbits try to steal the object without being touched by the dragon If touched the Hobbit is “frozen forever” Play continues until one of the Hobbits succeeds in stealing the jewels and becomes the next dragon or until the dragon has touched all of them freezing them forever If this happens play resumes with the same person being the dragon Group juggling is another game that can be adjusted to fit any group says Willden To begin the players form a circle A ball ob-a bean bag or any “throwable” ject is passed from the leader across the circle to another player Each player catches it and passes it to someone who has not yet caught it remembering who they caught it from and who they passed it to Again the object is thrown around the circle in the same order as the first time Then the game is added to A second third or fourth object or even more depending on the size of the group is started before the first object reaches the last person Still the objects go in the same order as any number are juggled around the circle at orice Willden says a variety of different shapes and kinds of objects add interest to the game He says this game teaches cooperation it includes everyone it helps teach d coordination and it is to learn to speed up or slow easy down to change to make it playable for any group Trust games are games which teach cooperative effort and interrelationships “Trust games have some physical contact and a degree of intimacy” says Willden “Knots” is one such trust game Everyone joins hands in a circle They then proceed to go over and under each others arms tying a human knot Then everyone must work together to untie the knot without dropping hands “Knots is kind of a metaphor to family life” says Willden “It kind of shows ‘if we all work together we can make this thing work’ which holds true for the family situation too” says Willden Hug tag is another trust game that is contact involved Willden says nature games activities and projects are also suited to families “They help to develop an awareness of the natural world alertness and skills such as identification and knowledge of natural seed” she says “The community service the club does is for improving your game” One example of a creative play ” an game is n updated version of changed by adding some fantasy “Fantasy is the thing that makes it fun for the younger kids” says In the game Smaug is the person who is “It” a terrible awful dragon trying to guard the jewels Staff er A en resident of Pleasant Alton Jackson view Mrs Jackson has and business education in careers held was 1950s she In the working for a public and her husband she when accounting firm for themselves business decided to go into do to “He just wanted something on his own she so we quit and did it” says The two ran a children’s clothing store in Ogden which they closed in 1957 It was during her partnership in the clothing store that Mrs Jackson was invited to join Soroptimist International The qualities which attracted her to the club at that time still appeal to her today “I still find it very stimulating to be associated with people who are active in the community and in business” she says “It gives you an uplift and keeps you up on what’s going on in the world” After her involvement in business Mrs Jackson returned to teaching for 15 years in the Weber County School District Mrs Jackson has held every office in the Ogden club except president and has served on many committees She is one of more than 40 women who belong to the Ogden club Membership in Soroptimist International which claims 66000 members worldwide is by invitation only Membership is limited to women in executive positions in business or professional fields Such a structure limits the club to women who share the same interests and the same dedication to community service Mrs Jack-so- n says She says women in the Ogden club represent a variety of local firms including flower shops clothing stores restaurants banking and educational institutions window cleaning day care centers architectural firms nursing and music Soroptimist derives its name from two Latin words “soro” and “optima” together meaning “the best for women” Mrs Jackson says “I think that means we have the the best The Ogden chapter has also organized other Soroptimist chapters in Bountiful Price Logan and Brigham City Fund-raisin- g activites such as rummage and bake sales and an upcoming spaghetti dinner are also held The only two living charter members of the club are Clarisse Hall and Sophie Read Mrs Jackson says she tries to stay active in the club although one of her hobbies is traveling which takes her away from Ogden to countries all over the world She also has a tabletop full of trophies she has won in ballroom dance competition “When you retire from active work you need a hobby” she says “I just decided ballroom dancing was something I wanted to do so I signed up for lessons” kinds of things women can do to be helpful to others” she says During its history the Ogden chapter has done service projects for all types of organizations including Hospice the American Red Cross Union Station the Utah School for the Deaf Camp Utada Salvation Army Weber County Hospital Primary Children’s Medical Center and the Weber Training Center Mrs Jackson says the organization has started many projects which have since been taken over by other groups The Soroptimists started a project for mentally retarded children at the old McKay-De- e Hospital nursing home and trained a teacher for the project The group established a dental clinic for needy children set up a children’s playground provided lunch and milk money for students at Grant School repaired band instruments at the Youth Develoment Center and worked with patients at the predecessor to the Weber County Memorial Hospital Each year the club sponsors a Youth Achievement Award for an outstanding area high school student Other local awards given by the club are the “Women Helping Women” award and the training award program which helps women further their education The club has received several awards recognizing its service and has hosted three Rocky Mountain Regional Conferences of Soroptimists $1 95 Assorted 8 Track Tapes and LP Records Your Choice SErsccajssa? Corn named VIENNA Va (AP) — Edward Corn has been named execu- tive vice president and general director of the Wolf Trap Foundation Corn had most recently served as director of the opera-music- al theatre program of the National Endowment for the Arts Wolf Trap presents a varied program of opera symphony dance jazz pop folk and country music during its summer seasons Draw a line PASADENA Calif (AP) — An average long pencil can draw a line 35 miles long The “lead”’ in pencils used today isn’t lead at all it’s graphite Americans buy more than 2 billion pencils annually Photo show — boon to community NEW YORK (AP) “Kafka-Prague- ” an exhibition of 169 photographs and a body of important documentary material is being shown at the Jewish Museum through Jan 3 1982 The show tells the story of personal Franz Kafka against the background of the city of Prague says Willden In the game of Sniff players are blindfolded and one by one are allowed to smell certain common objects which are gathered in advance Items with strong recogniz- at the Fitness Factory - for men and women Featuring Nautilus Equipment the most form for able odors are best Try cedar apple cucumber mold mint fish tomato vine or others says Willden “Player correctly identifying the largest number of objects is the effective -- of exercise physical development minute sessions takes to look and feel great! Modern hydroswirl pool sauna and tanning booth 3 - 20 winner” a week is all it Aerobic dancercise classes “Not all of family life is fun and games but it’s important” And he adds “When a game is fun for everyone we all win” Supervised children’s playroom Professional staff S CHILDREN'S VISUAL EXAMINATION INCLUDES: A IS Examination Complete disease check for Includes B NO CONTRACT any eye Pair Of Glasses If CALL NOW Needed Impact resistant glass lenses Good selection of styles and colors in frames C Fitting & 3CZS J 394-94- 81 Albertson Plaza 2074 Harrison Blvd Adjusting Custom fit to each individual busing iwr Jaiorile uinr TM Rm 196 f l u S Fat Of Arvtes - all Times D ONE YEAR'S INSURANCE Insurance against breakage of frame and or lenses up to one complete pair rights Swujtcj'f Read The Classified Optical Associates Ph 399-987- 3 1 1 96-30- th Strsot Meet Craig Ehleider Mr East Coast America and 1st Mr USA He will help you with - exercise and nutrition questions runner up to Featuring NAUTILUS equipment Division of Sophisticated Lady nationwide figure and fitness salons new Fitness Factory in Salt Lake City too mimnl initiation wnnrc nf nnn or Opening Soon with — A |
