Kids Out day 2016

For this year's 'Kids Out Day' the Club were delighted to take the children of Mitchell House School to visit the W5 science and discovery centre at the Odyssey complex on the 13th June. Kids Out Day is an event carried out by a large number of the Rotary Clubs throughout UK and Ireland on the same day – taking kids with learning or physical difficulties to some fun place for the day. It was wonderful to see this wonderful group of children, so quick witted and full of fun, interacting so well and really enjoying it.

The Club thanks all those members who accompanied the children to W5 or otherwise helped to make it the success it was.

We have been participating in this day out for 7 years and have taken the pupils of Mitchell House School out for the day to the Portaferry Aquarium, Castle Espie, the Zoo and Streamvale Open Farm, Dundonald and the Ulster Museum. More details here.

As 75% of the children were in wheelchairs or required special walking aids to get about a unique, specially adapted bus was hired from Translink to transport the 26 children and 8 adults from the school. Having left at 10.00am they were met at W5 by President Ronnie and Elma, Past Presidents Brian Clements and Brian Ferguson and Rotarians Mark Davidson and John McCleery.

W5 is Ireland's award winning Science and Discovery Centre with over 250 interactive exhibits based on the themes of Discovery, Go, See and Do and the children spent a long time in the Discovery area the hands on interactive exhibition where the children can learn about themselves and the world about them by painting on a digital canvas in the Art Studio, playing animal sounds in the farmyard, going shopping in a mock-up shop, using the crane to build in the construction area and, in the Donnelly Group garage, building a soft play Formula 1 car or climbing into the brand new Fiat 500 which has all the sounds and switches of a real car. Another great hit with the children (and the adults!) was the Encounter with Dinosaurs exhibit with its amazing new Augmented Reality technology which superimposes computer generated images onto our view of the real world. The children can watch themselves on a big screen as they get close and personal with a T Rex, are approached by a pack of curious Raptors or try not to be trampled by a passing Diplodocus. A couple of hours flew by and all set out to Pizza Hut for a well deserved lunch of pizzas, chicken nuggets and drinks.

Organiser Past President Brian Clements notes that the children were wonderful, very well behaved, polite and appreciative. The Club have subsequently received a thank you card from the school with a photo and all the children's names.