What We Do . . . and How We Do It!
The Bread and Butter of Creek Kids Care: Stationery
Creek Kids spend a lot of their time together producing beautiful stationery. The proceeds from the sale of this stationery are used to fund projects of the Creek Kids’ choosing. The stationery is created in two stages: art parties and assembly parties.
Art Parties
Kids of all ages attend our art parties. These parties can take place at elementary schools, at the request of scout troops, in our CKC school clubs, or even as part of a birthday party activity. When we gather, we are there to create beautiful art. Our intention is to create something stunning to help makes someone else’s life easier.
The structure of the art parties is free-flowing, with a variety of mediums for participants to use. Kids can spend the entire party doing watercolor; other kids might start with tempera paints, move on to oil pastels, then do some watercolors. Or they might try marble-in-the-box paintings or stamping. Originally, the art parties were planned only for young kids, but the older kids soon joined in, and now even the adults roll up their sleeves to create. By the end of an hour, the room bursts with gorgeous and colorful art.
The Creek Kids leave their art work behind, knowing that it is a tool to make the world a better place.
Cutting/Sorting
An adult or teenage volunteer takes all the work produced at the art party, cuts it into rectangles, and prepares it for the assembly party.
Assembly Parties
Creek Kids from middle school and up can attend the assembly parties. Usually these take place at the Creek Kids Care school clubs. At the assembly parties, we take the rectangles of original art and attach or glue or paste them onto blank stationery. The work is exacting (we have a product to sell after all) and fun — lots of conversation and laughter and lots of oohs and aahs over the beautiful artwork. Once an assembler has put together 10 cards, the cards are bound together with 10 envelopes. We insert a bit of information about Creek Kids Care, tie the bundle with raffia, and, voilá, we have a beautiful packet of stationery!
Touchstones
We also create Touchstones, clear glass magnets that contain original CKC art work. Often these touchstones include an inspiring message. They are fun to assemble, and the end-product is absolutely gorgeous.
Where do we sell?
We sell our products at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market, we sell via our website, and we also sell at various craft fairs or our own annual event. These sales events are a great opportunity for the Creek Kids to articulate what they do and why. In addition to any events where we sell, anyone can email to let us know they want some stationery — we’ll set them up!
