{"id":25630,"date":"2023-08-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25630"},"modified":"2023-09-01T06:41:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T06:41:34","slug":"camp-zama-community-members-connect-with-children-at-nearby-orphanage-through-power-of-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=25630","title":{"rendered":"Camp Zama community members connect with children at nearby orphanage through power of play"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>

\n 1 \/ 2<\/span>
\n
\n Show Caption +<\/span>
\n Hide Caption \u2013<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n
\n
\n Camp Zama community member Jamie Clauss and her two sons \u2014 Sebastian, 12; and Seamus, 9 \u2014 pose for a photo with staff from the Sagami South Children\u2019s Home in Sagamihara City, Japan, Aug. 28. The Clauss family was there as part of a volunteer visit in which they aimed to connect with the children there through playing popular American games and singing English-language singalong songs.
\n (Photo Credit: Chihiro Suzuki, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs)<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n VIEW ORIGINAL<\/a>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"Camp
\n <\/a>
\n
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n 2 \/ 2<\/span>
\n
\n Show Caption +<\/span>
\n Hide Caption \u2013<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n
\n
\n Twelve-year-old Sebastian Clauss, right, writes the activity program for the day on a white board as his mother, Jamie, observes during a volunteer visit Aug. 28 at Sagami South Children\u2019s Home in Sagamihara City, Japan. Jamie, Sebastian and his brother, Seamus, 9, \u2014 all Camp Zama community members \u2014 connected with children at the nearby orphanage through the power of play as a way to get to know their host-nation neighbors.
\n (Photo Credit: Chihiro Suzuki, U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs)<\/span>
\n <\/span>
\n VIEW ORIGINAL<\/a>
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

CAMP ZAMA, Japan \u2013 A mother and her two sons from Camp Zama connected with children at a nearby orphanage through the power of play during a volunteer visit there Aug. 28.<\/p>\n

Jamie Clauss, who volunteers elsewhere on Camp Zama, said she wanted to give back to her host-nation community and provide her boys \u2014 Sebastian, 12; and Seamus, 9 \u2014 the chance to connect with Japanese children who may have few opportunities to interact with Americans and who may be curious about the different language and customs.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs Office reached out to the Sagami South Children\u2019s Home and organized the visit for Jamie and her sons, who spent their time there playing games with the preschool-age children there.<\/p>\n

Sebastian and Seamus started by introducing themselves in Japanese and English, and opened the floor to questions. However, the Japanese children were initially too shy to speak up, so the brothers prompted them with a few simple questions, such as what kind of games they like to play and what kind of food they like.<\/p>\n

It was when Sebastian and Seamus told them some of their favorite games that the Japanese children smiled and quickly became excited, because they realized they played many of the same games.<\/p>\n

The group then played a game of bingo that used simple English vocabulary words like \u201capple,\u201d \u201cbread,\u201d \u201cwater\u201d and \u201crice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian said some of the Japanese children found it challenging to remember some of the words, but as the game progressed they were able to pronounce them better and repeat the words back.<\/p>\n

Next was a game of Simon Says, which is a popular \u201cfollow the leader\u201d game for young American children, but with which most Japanese children are not familiar. Once they learned the rules, it was difficult to determine a winner because the children were so excited to follow each prompt, even when it wasn\u2019t preceded by \u201cSimon says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie and her sons then led the group in a performance of some popular American singalong songs such as \u201cHead, Shoulders, Knees and Toes\u201d and \u201cThe Hokey Pokey.\u201d And even though it again took some time for the Japanese children to learn the words, they were not shy about the dancing, Jamie said.<\/p>\n

At the end of the event, the group reflected together on what they learned, and Jamie presented the children with small balls as gifts, and they immediately wanted to play catch with their new friends.<\/p>\n

A staff member at Sagami South Children\u2019s Home said he was worried the language barrier would be too much of a challenge, but said it ended up being a great success thanks to the kindness of the Clauss family.<\/p>\n

Jamie had equally positive things to say about their hosts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids did really well for their age and I was impressed by the vocabulary some of them knew,\u201d Jamie said. \u201cI expect my sons will tell their friends about what they did today and hopefully get them interested in volunteering as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seamus said the language barrier was initially a challenge, but he thoroughly enjoyed volunteering with the children and is eager to do it again. His brother agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to continue doing volunteer activities that come up in the future,\u201d Sebastian said.<\/p>\n

This was the first volunteer activity involving Camp Zama at Sagami South Children\u2019s Home since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a USAG Japan Public Affairs representative said, and the hope is to restart regular engagements between the two as a way to enhance the relationship between the installation and its neighbor city.<\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: This article was written by Chihiro Suzuki, who worked in the U.S. Army Garrison Japan Public Affairs Office as part of an annual four-week summer internship program for Japanese college students.]\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 Camp Zama community member Jamie Clauss and her two sons \u2014 Sebastian, 12; and Seamus, 9 \u2014 pose for a photo with staff from the Sagami South Children\u2019s Home in Sagamihara City, Japan, Aug. 28. The Clauss family was there as part of a volunteer visit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25632,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25630"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25635,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25630\/revisions\/25635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}