WARRIOR PAINT WORKSHOP VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: MARCH 27TH
Thank you for taking the time for the consider volunteering in aid of the children at Glenbow School, the Warrior Paint project and Rotary involvement in the TRC Education Day on March 27th at the Shaw Conference Centre.
I'm really excited about the possible direction that this will take with our Rotary partnership for the TRC. It seems like a great way to combine volunteer involvement, student involvement, some financial support for materials for the 243 students that will be involved from all across Alberta in something that everyone can feel proud to be a part of.
I am including a link to the Warrior Paint project here. It has a brief description of what the children have done in their own school and a bunch of links to show examples of their work and newspaper articles about their project :)
When I saw this project at the Alberta Teachers' Association First Nations, Métis and Inuit conference in November I knew we had to share this and expand it for other schools across the province. What is happening for Edmonton Day is that the children (our youngest presenters at the conference!!!), their teachers and Bluebird Mustooch (a young Stoney woman from Alexis First Nation who is currently studying at Emily Carr University ... and one of the five artists that did the work that is beautifully displayed in the LRT extension in Edmonton) will jointly take the Warrior Paint project and share it with the 243 participants and their teachers that will be in the session on March 27th from 12:15-1:30 pm. The archival photos for the project will be from Indian Residential Schools and each participant will create their own painting to take home at the end of the day on March 27th!!!
When teachers leave the session with their students we want them to take back the paint brushes that they used, the paint that is left, the pastels, etc. so that they can go home and share this with their other students and their community. They will be encouraged to find archival photos from their own communities (they will need to buy more supplies at home obviously) and make this their own project in their own schools and communities.
The cost of the materials (total for the art supplies to the bankers boxes to carry them home, to the wipes to clean the children's hands a bit before they head to the Shaw Conference Centre bathrooms to wash up better, table covers, etc.) is $3000. If there is a way to have Rotary groups chip in to cover that it would take a great deal of stress off of the teachers that I have been working with. They are currently ordering materials, praying hard and keeping the receipts :) They are so awesome. They have searched to find the best possible prices but want the students to have very good quality art to take home as well.
We plan to have 24 tables so we'll need 24 volunteers (one for each table) to help guide and teachers and children at that table. This is what made me think it was a perfect fit for Rotary as it fits with the goals, it fits with the numbers and it can be the Rotary sponsored/supported workshop at the TRC event. We can list it as that in the program and have the signage up in the room so that people know who supported them in this activity.