Happy 8th Birthday – Chestnut Ridge Academy

At CRA, birthdays are holidays. E is not a devoted gamer, he would much prefer to spend his time on his devices creating art, 3d modeling the next dream home, or exploring automations and deep technical details. But, on occasion, he falls in love with a game. Typically, the games he loves have very high quality graphics, beautiful soundtracks, and are first person adventure based. He does not enjoy games with any conflict or destruction. This summer, he fell in love with the game Journey by That Game Company. Naturally, that became the theme for his birthday party which focused on “The Journey to 8.”

You're Invited...

Breakfast came with an invitation to take a Journey to 8 by following clues to unlock the story at the end.

Chemistry Experiment

One of the clues led E to the science lab where he conducted an experiment to recreate the Journey color palette using an explosion of yeast and peroxide.

Fingerprints

Another challenge required the matching of fingerprints to produce the next clue.

Present

E’s present was the Playstation 4 with the Journey game now available to play beyond his iPad.

Mentor Wishes

One special present arrived from a great mentor to E, a designer from Apple who sent an official beanie along with a hand written note with warm wishes.

Surprise

For his final present, E received a poem from Mom and Dad. The framed poem told of a great place to celebrate turning 8 being the island of Figure 8.

Joy

E was THRILLED to know he would soon be traveling again since he has been at home due to COVID lockdown for 1.5 years now!