The Gathering Place: My Expectations and Reality

While I have only actually been to the Gathering Place once thus far my group and I are well on our way on our duties we have been assigned and it has been nothing like the way I thought it would be at the beginning.

My Expectations:
1. When the organizations that our class is partnering with presented themselves to our class the Gathering Place did make it aware what we were going to be doing. It was explained to us that we would be planning an event where we as a group would attend with an underprivileged family.
2. From the get go I also believed that the Gathering Place had their mind set on a visit to the Denver Zoo as that was the place and the general idea that the organization expressed when they presented themselves.The event that was first mentioned was indeed a trip to the zoo and it was our duty to highlight what extra events and activities could be done at the zoo and thus we would make all the arrangements. I was personally looking forward to taking a family or two to the zoo for a day.

Reality:
While I thought I had it figured out sure enough, I didn't. I misunderstood what exactly The Gathering Place had in mind for our group. Rather than actually going with a group to the zoo, the organization made it a lot more simple. The zoo was a great place to start discussion as it is a place that offers entertainment for families and is  an opportunity that some women and children can't take advantage of here in Denver. When our group got together with The Gathering Place it was made aware that there was no exact location that was set in stone, thus as a group we had a sit down with the Gathering Place and brainstormed ideas of local Denver attractions that would fit the bill just as the zoo would. Below I will post a list of potential ideas our group had in mind for this project, some have been eliminated however due to the fact that The Gathering Place is already partnered with the attraction. The other expectation I had before was that our group would be attending, but after meeting with the organization that expectation was turned down as well. Yes, our duty still is to make arrangements for families to attend an event, but not with the group instead our duty is to provide The Gathering Place with connections so they can send any given family a trip or more so a day out. We are more so of what goes on in the background rather than being right in the middle of the action like I thought it would be.

List of Potential Places a Family Can Visit:
1. Denver Zoo
2. Museums (Nature & Science, Art, or Children's)
3. Sporting Event (The Gathering Place already has these connections)
....This is just a list our group has started with and is subject to change