Monthly Archives: June 2014

Au Pair in America Summer & Water Safety

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IMG_20140608_143723On Sunday, June 8th the Suffolk County, LI Au Pairs had a cluster meeting at their Community Counselor, Cindy Garruba’s beach house on the beautiful North Fork of Long Island.  They spent time enjoying the summer weather, even a few took dips in the chilly Long Island Sound!  Everyone got to know each other a little better, many new au pairs meeting current au pairs for the first time!

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The meeting heading inside for some serious talk on summer and water safety.  A former lifeguard and swim instructor, Cindy reviewed basic water safety since all the au pairs will visit the beautiful Long Island beaches or swim in their host family pools, many while caring for their host children.  We also reviewed first aid, sunscreen usage, hydrating in the heat, what poison ivy prevention and explained ticks, lyme disease and more.

IMG_20140608_161432Presentation of awards and certificates followed the safety lesson.  Cindy is presenting Justine Probst, German au pair, with a Global Awareness recognition certificate.  Justine did a lesson on German culture in her host child’s second grade classroom.  A wonderful way for children to learn first hand about another culture!

4 au pairs will be heading home soon and came to their last cluster meeting.  Thanks for all the love and support you gave your host families and fellow au pairs this year!

Jarka from Slovakia; Ramona, Chrisi & Jessica from Germany are heading home

Jarka from Slovakia; Ramona, Chrisi & Jessica from Germany are heading home

We finished up with strawberries, blueberries and cream.  It is strawberry season on the local Long Island farms!  Then a few last pictures on the deck.  Everyone had fun!

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Au Pairs Enjoy NY Color Run!

10438702_10152531256139715_577199106_nA team of Au Pair in America Long Island Au Pairs ran the Color Run in Queens last weekend.

10417005_10152530765004715_1768293994_nThe Color Run was founded in March of 2011 as an event to promote healthiness and happiness by bringing the community together to participate in the “Happiest 5k on the Planet”. Check it out here.

The Au Pair in America team was organized by Aisha Summers, a Canadian au pair living with a host family in Coram.  She recruited au pair friends Christine Van Tonder, Shireen Hendricks , Corinna Sommerman, and Elsmarie Otto to run with her.  They came up with a team uniform, white t-shirts, colorful tutus and accessories! They met early that morning and took the Long Island Railroad to the event.  The festivities were fun and they all want to do it again sometime.get-attachment_(33)

Aisha said, “The color run is to celebrate yourself as a person, where you are in life and what you’ve accomplished as an individual 🙂 I think my favorite part was really just forgetting the stresses and enjoying a great event with great people creating a great memory!”

10425762_10152240250756785_1468651657_nChristine a South African au pair living in Smithtown shared, “The reason I did is was so that I can spend some time with friends away from work and had previously heard about the color run and it seemed like a fun experience. The actual event was very awesome, planned out well, colorful of course, there was music playing, everyone (the runners and race organizers) was very friendly and happy which created a great atmosphere. My favorite part of the race had to be just spending it with some of my friends and also crossing the finish line with all all the other people that had finished as well and properly celebrating it right there with music and of course the throwing of colored powder, which looked incredible. I would like to do it again and am hoping to do the one coming up in July, in Brooklyn, hopefully get some more people into it. All and all i think the color run was a great idea to do as a group, and the message behind it is so much more meaningful, just knowing that it promotes healthy living around the world, and supports charities is a wonderful accomplishment, not to mention all the smiles it generates. I definitely encourage other people to try t out, at least once.”

IMAG2068Corinna a German au pair living in Huntington added, “ The color run was so much fun. I did it because I wanted to meet some other girls and it just sounded fun and I saw so many pictures but I never did it myself.. I checked out their website for pictures and I saw that they also do it in Germany, so I definitely will do it again with my German friends 🙂 My favorite part was of course getting dirty and party afterwards with the girls 🙂 It was such a nice day, even though we all had to get up early, but it was totally worth it!”

Congratulations to the Team!  Spreading good will and happiness with a cultural flair!get-attachment_(12)