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Guest blog: Health Messenger Training in D.C.

October 10, 2018 |

Hodgson, Lynna_TrackAthlete-leader Lynna Hodgson of Lee’s Summit traveled to Washington, D.C., in late September to take part in a Special Olympics Health Messenger training. She took the trip with fellow athlete-leaders Allen Tobin and Lynn Shuffit and blogged about her experience. We have re-posted her personal blogs here with her permission.

Sept. 24:
Woke up at 5:30pm. Got everything ready and took care of the dogs. We picked up Allen Tobin at 6:45am. On our way to the airport to go to DC! Arrived at Washington DC at 11:30am. It’s now 3:48pm, and we are going on a tour. I’m looking forward to it! We went on a tour, and it was amazing! Saw some cool stuff! It’s 7:18pm, and I’m tired!

Sept. 25:
Woke up at 7:30am and ate breakfast. It’s 12:47pm, just finished lunch, we had salmon, salad, rice and Caesar salad. In the morning, we had training and it was really good! At 5:30 p.m., the session ended, and a group of us are going on a tour. But first, we went to dinner. I learned a lot today, we made up our own workout, put things like (oranges, strawberries etc in our water, talked about stretching, what being healthy means, emotionally and physically.  And we played a few games. It was a good day. It’s 10:24pm, been back from the tour for an hr. It was a blast! Was great weather for it too! Saw the White House from a far! But I still got a good pic. There was a group of us who went on a tour. It was very nice and educational. Another full day tomorrow!

Sept. 26:
Woke up before my alarm, just a few minutes. It’s 7:27am. Ready for more training. In the afternoon today I will talk about my practicum. A little nervous about that but I know I will be fine!  Wow!! What a day I had! I presented today, visited another museum and at seafood! Yum! I worked on my practicum in the morning and presented it at the afternoon. Listened to some of the other athletes practicum and they all had great ideas! After all of that, went to a museum, this museum was about NASA, it was really neat, then after that we met up with Allen, had a dinner at seafood place, fresh seafood, you can’t get better than that!! Then after that came back to the hotel and chatted with some friends, took pics, then I’m going to pack for tomorrow, our flight isn’t that early, so that’s good! It’s 8:05pm and I’m already for bed!

Sept. 27:
It’s 9:05am. I’m on the airplane to go back to KC! My dad woke me up at 7:30am, my alarm did not go off, I figured why the alarm did not go off, because the alarm was on a different day, good one Lynna! Lol. We had breakfast at the airport, it was really good! I had a hard time going to sleep last night. I really don’t know why. But it’s okay.  We landed at Kansas City at 11am. Allen and I claimed our suitcases and my dad went to get the van. We waited for dad, there was miss communication with dad and I. I really need to work on that. We dropped Allen off to his house. On our way home, dad listened to one of his favorite singers (back in the day) lol. When we got home, I was welcomed with big kisses from my dogs (Winston & Henry) and got a big hug from my mom. It was so good to see them! I had to unpack quickly, I had to pack for the special Olympics Missouri Outdoor Games, I’m really excited for the weekend! Excited to see my friends I don’t see very often, and the Team Missouri 2018 reunion.  Ok I’m sorry..I’m getting off topic, now I’m going to talk about my first conference for Healthy Athlete Messenger! Okay here it goes:

What I liked: meeting new people from different states, I even met some people from Canada! Learned a lot of new information. Exploring DC! Eating fresh seafood! Making new friends. Breakfast and lunch was really good and healthy! I liked to stay in a hotel room by myself (I felt more independent) What I did not like: I would prefer more breaks (but I understand why they didn’t have too many breaks through sessions),  I would like to have handouts of what we talked about and on who presented. Other than that, I thought it was REALLY awesome! Now I have to do my practicum, wish me good luck! I wish my fellow health messenger athletes good luck while they are doing their practicum.