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This year's race will be held at Old Troy Park with twenty familiesexpected to participate. Previous races have been very well received and dueto expected heavy interest, The GOALs Center has tentatively scheduled asecond race for Sunday, September 23rd.
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The Amazing Race is designed to emphasize family strengths andteambuilding through a variety of challenges that ask participants to usecreativity, speed, patience and a sense of humor to succeed as a family &team. All participants begin and finish at common points, but in-between theyfollow clues to reach different challenges. Like the acclaimed reality TVshow of the same name, at each challenge the participating team has a task ortasks to complete to obtain the clue leading them to their next challenge.Some of the past challenges have included an Obstacle Course, "Family Money","Mud" and "Family Scrabble". Families must decide the most effective way ofcompleting tasks and, sometimes, must choose the most appropriate familymember to complete the challenge. Each challenge has underlying themesrelated to grief and the process everyone works through.
The initial GOALs program, a six-week counseling support group forfamilies was created as a direct response to the events of September 11, 2001.These groups provide psycho-educational support to families experiencing griefwith an emphasis on strengthening resiliency and improving their copingskills. Using a structured curriculum, which was designed and published byGOALs, families are provided education on the grief process and receivesupport from certified group psychotherapists, volunteers and other familiesexperiencing grief. The groups were designed by three private practicepsychotherapists in Morristown and have since grown into a comprehensivenetwork of counseling support groups and events for ALL families with childrenwho have experienced the death of a parent. GOALs programs provide psycho-educational support in which complicated mental health concepts are translatedand presented in a simplified manner, allowing participants (adults andchildren alike) to more easily access and incorporate the information intotheir normal, everyday lives.
For more information about The GOALs Center for Families and/or servicesavailable, please contact Kevin Duffy at (973) 800-9661 /[email protected] or visit us on the web at www.goalscenter.org.
SOURCE The GOALs Center for Families