Friday

There will be 6 different sessions. The first session is Ice Breakers. Each group will start in the room you will be in for Session 2.

Everyone will be in the ballroom with me until 10:00. There is a break from 10:00-10:30

Parents will bring their kids/teens to the meeting rooms and sign them in at 10:30.

Session 1: Ice Breakers (10:30-11:30)

First 10-20 Minutes

There are not assigned seats in the rooms. We want to make every effort to make sure new kids or kids that have been before and still don’t know anyone are instantly included. What you will do- as kids walk in the room.. say if you have been to Higgy Con before or already know someone here- go to the right side of the room. If this is your first year or you don’t know anyone- go to the left side of the room. Match kids up so each kid has a buddy. Maybe 2 new kids per 1 veteran kid- whatever is needed to make sure every new kids has a buddy. Instructions are they include the new kid throughout the weekend and sit together. After each pair has been made, now say if there is a friend from previous years you want to sit with- combine their group with your group. Form tables that way. This will take probably 5-10 minutes.

Try to make an effort for boys to sit together whenever possible.

Next 10-20 Minutes:

Friend Finder Challenge- there will be cards in each of your rooms. They will go through and get to know their group by finding someone that matches each square. Here is the card. Encourage them to introduce themselves to each other.

BOYS-ONLY WELCOME SESSION AT 11:00

Bobby (Higgy Dad) will come to each of the 5 rooms and ask for any boys that want to go to a boys-only welcome session for 15 minutes. Bobby is just going to introduce himself, let the boys see that there are a lot of boys there (around 50 or 60!) They will be pulled one more time throughout Higgy Con for another boys-only session. Bobby will go over the rules with the boys in the boys room. They will go to the Calm Corner.

Bobby will have the boys back in the rooms by 11:20.

Next 5-10 Minutes (In Your Room):

Introduce yourselves as group leaders- let them know a little bit about your story and why you are volunteering and what you want out of the weekend. What you’ve really enjoyed about Higgy Con in the past.

Next 5-10 Minutes:

Have kids go around their tables and introduce themselves. Name, age, where they are from, brace, no brace, preparing for surgery, etc. and what their favorite hobby is.

Next 5 Minutes:

Go over rules:

Bathroom passes, giant bear pass for calm corner (not a hangout zone), let group leader or adult volunteer know if they need something. They cannot leave the room without a pass.

Rest Of Time/Extra Time:

Just have the kids/teens keep getting to know each other. There really shouldn’t be any extra time- but if there is a few things you can do:

Any returning kids that have been to Higgy Con that want to share their favorite part of Higgy Con previously and why they come back every year.

Ask for kid/teen volunteers that may want to briefly share an encouraging few words for other kids to make everyone more comfortable. There will be lots of veteran Higgy Con kids that can help with this.