Three amazing days in Jasper, Indiana! We arrived on Tuesday night so we could hit the ground running on Wednesday morning. Donna picked up Alan, Ethan, and I around 8am so we could head over to 10th Street School. We would have four Hocus Focus workshops here with students grades 3-5, some 500 students in all. They were spectacular learners and performers! We witnessed some extraordinary events that day, especially when one autistic student stood before his classmates and performed some great magic.
The following day (Thursday), we were on our way to Ireland School for two morning workshops – another 200 students exposed to the Hocus Focus project. And another outstanding day of working with some special kids. That afternoon, we worked at Precious Blood Catholic Schools with about 100 exceptional students. And later that day, I was off to Memorial Hospital for a workshop with occupational therapists and critical care providers exposing them to Healing of Magic.
Thursday was not quite over yet….next, it was back to the hotel to pick up the team and head over to the Jasper Arts Center. We loaded in the show and started on some of the set up. We worked for a couple of hours before calling it quits and heading back to the hotel.
Friday started with another Hocus Focus workshop at Holy Family Catholic School for a much small group of 75 outstanding learners. They mastered their magic tricks, kicked in their creativity, and a dose of problem-solving made for some interesting performances in front of their peers. It was great fun!
After wrapping up at Holy Family, we grabbed some quick lunch and were on our back to the Jasper Arts Center. We had a very good crowd coming that night including 65 members of my family (both Spencer and Hawkins). By the time the doors opened, we had some excited people from the Jasper area waiting to get in and find a seat. We had a full house, almost completely sold out – and a fantastic audience too!
After the show, I met lots of people in the lobby, signed autographs, took pictures, and listened to people’s favorite illusions. Once we were packed up, we all went to the hotel and then met up with my family at the local Chinese restaurant. What a great time we had!
Thanks to everyone, especially Donna and Kit, for their hard work in making all of this so successful!