This week’s weather update is not nearly as nice as the
others I have posted to date. The
weather here Easter weekend is simply awful. Darn cold is the best way to describe it. I and many other St. Louis residents are spending time
covering our perennials which seem to think that spring is really here. We are anticipating temperatures as low as 20
the next two nights.
On a more positive note, an experience associated with this
conference that I had not anticipated has been my involvement with students. One of the hats I wear in my role as
professor is serving as the faculty sponsor for Maryville University’s
Student Occupation Therapy Association chapter. The organization’s focus this year has been for members to attend the
conference. To that end the students
have had a number of social and fundraising and social activities to facilitate
that objective. It is great to see the
students excited about attending their first conference. Many are planning to attend and others will
participate by serving as volunteers. The president of MUSOTA is
working with occupational therapy students at St.
Louis University and Washington University to organize the first student
forum at this year’s conference. Another
of our students is serving as a page for the meetings of the Representative
Assembly. As a former member of the
Assembly, I have enjoyed the opportunity to meet with the student and discuss
the nature of her role and the workings of the RA. Overall the students are very excited about
this opportunity to meet other students and participate in all that the
national conference has to offer. I am
hoping that this experience will encourage the students to be regular
conference attendees and members of AOTA. I encourage each of you to talk to students during this conference and
get the fresh perspective they bring.
This postings tip regarding St. Louis is St. Louis
style pizza. St. Louis style pizza is very thin and uses provel
cheese instead of mozzarella and is cut into small squares. Be sure to try it when you are here. A final piece of information is that the
weekend of conference there will be major construction/destruction occurring on
Hwy 40/ I-64 which is one of the major arteries leading to downtown. It is being recommended you avoid the highway
all together that weekend. For those of
us living in St. Louis
this is only the beginning of a very painful road construction project. Looking forward to seeing you in two weeks.
Bob Cunningham
