Tag Archives: Au Pair in America

Au Pairs Were the Stars of Our Cultural Fair!

May 23, 2025 – 6:09 pm

Our May au pair cluster meeting was a cultural fair. It was also our host family workshop for this year. The au pairs who participated did an amazing job representing their countries. The host families, au pairs and guests who attended enjoyed learning more about the various countries. Photos and information were displayed for each of the countries. Some played videos, provided snacks and sweets, or played music. Others had activities like crafts or seeing your name written in Japanese writing systems of hiragana, katakana and kanji.

Galentine’s Day Cluster Meeting

February 13, 2023 – 10:29 pm

What is Galentine’s Day? This “girlfriend holiday” dates back to 2010 when it was created by a fictional character named Leslie on a show called Parks and Recreation. During an episode (called “Galentine’s Day”), Leslie gathers a group of her closest gal pals for a brunch full of waffles and love and proclaimed “Every February 13, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home and we just come and kick it, breakfast style.” Thus, this holiday of “ladies celebrating ladies” was born.

For our February cluster meeting, we had our own Galentine’s Day celebration with sweet treats, an art project, bingo with prizes, and of course an opportunity to make friends.

Scavenger Hunt at National Harbor

July 11, 2021 – 6:10 pm

It was a beautiful evening for a scavenger hunt!

These are the lovely au pairs who participated. This was our first in-person meeting since March 2020! For most of these au pairs it was there first in-person cluster meeting they ever attended. It was so great to finally meet people we have been communicating with online for all this time.

Here are the ladies on the winning team!

They were the first ones back and completed every item on the hunt!

Here is the scavenger hunt activity we did…

A scavenger hunt is a game where you are given a list of questions, things to look for and photographs to take. You will work together as a team to complete as many as you can in an hour.

Rules:

Photos need to be taken as a group selfie with all team members included.
Questions/photos may be completed in any order you choose.
Return to the starting point (outside of Del Sol store) by 7:15 pm to have your score calculated and find out who is the winning team.

Let the game begin!

Learn the names of all the au pairs on your team.
Find the first president of the United States and take a picture with him.
Find the U.S. president called “The Great Emancipator” and take a picture with him.
Find the mosaic mural called Maryland’s Bounty and take a picture in front of it.
Take a picture with the Capitol Wheel in the background,
Take a picture with a boat or picture of a boat.
Take a picture in front of the business with piano keys on their sign.
Take a picture trying to help the statue of a lady carrying her groceries.
Take a picture with a famous movie star from the 1960s.
Take a picture in front of a restaurant named for an American car.
Take a picture with the carousel.
Take a picture inside the heart statue.
Take a picture with “The Awakening”.
Take a picture of something you find beautiful.
Take a picture of something that looks delicious.
Group selfies with these famous people:

You probably won’t complete all of the questions/photos. That’s not a problem. Have fun and take great pictures.

April is Community Service Month

April 3, 2019 – 9:15 am

Making a Difference in Your Community

April is community service month. Volunteering is a great way to make a difference in your community as well as improve your English and learn about American culture. You can volunteer on your own, with friends or with your host family. If you don’t know where to start check out the Volunteer Match website. They can help you find a volunteer opportunity in your area, with an organization that you would like to support.

Our cluster volunteering at the DC Area Diaper Bank last year.

2019 Au Pair in America Community Service Awards

If you have been volunteering in the past year, we want to hear all about it! Au Pair in America is looking for our au pairs who have gone above and beyond in the last year to volunteer and have a real impact on their community. Go online HERE to get more information on the 2019 Au Pair in America Community Service Awards. Entry deadline is May 1.

Celebrating APIA’s 30th Anniversary with Service

May 31, 2016 – 6:58 am

Au Pair in America launched the first U.S. au pair program in 1986. We are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. Lisa and I discussed ways to celebrate this momentous occasion and came up with a plan for our cluster to carry out 30 Hours of Service in 2016.

Au pairs always enjoy opportunities to take part in service projects. We normally do one or two projects each year as a cluster. This year we are stepping up our game. We are looking for ways to volunteer in a variety of different types of charities (benefitting the homeless, children, animals, the environment, etc.) We will post updates as our projects continue. So, check back to see what we can do when we work together.

We have done one project so far:

April 10 – Making Sandwiches for the Homeless (5 hours of service)

Screen Shot 2016-05-31 at 2.43.01 PM

How are we counting the 30 hours?

We are counting the time our group works on the project together (making sandwiches 1 1/2 hours), time preparing for event and purchasing supplies (2 hours) and time delivering them to DC Central Kitchen (1 1/2 hours.)