Hello, Stephen here. As many of you know, this summer HIP was able to bring a large variety of activities and specials guests to our meal sites this summer.  We had librarians, musicians, bubble makers and community members of all stripes come to engage with the youth we serve.  But as the summer is winding down I wanted to take some time to highlight a special partnership that HIP was involved in this summer.

I can’t lie, I have been smitten with Seattle Recreative since I first walked into their Greenwood store this spring. The place is a paradise for crafters, artists and creative types of all flavors. Shelves abound all sorts of materials: tissue paper, tile, beads, glue, fragmented plates, old maps, yarn, paint, brushes, wood, and so much more. All of it is donated or salvaged from the community and is available to the public at very low prices.

Thus I was thrilled when I found out about their Community Partnership Program, where they work with area non-profits to bring arts education programming to the community. After meeting with Seattle Recreative, they agreed to work with us this summer by bringing materials and workshops to our summer meal sites.  We scheduled craft workshops at three of our sites and they gifted us some store credit so we could buy crafts supplies to use throughout the summer.

We had our first workshop at Cedarvale. Two educators from Seattle Recreative, Barbara and Marva, worked with the children to make paper puppets and other crafts. I have never seen the children at the site as engaged and attentive as they were when Barbara and Marva were there. It was amazing to see all of the amazing puppets and other crafts the kids were able to make once their creative juices began to flow.

We also had Barbara and Marva at two of our other sites, Jane Addams and Paramount School Park. The events were similarly successfull. I was thoroughly impressed with the educators as they really knew how to strike a balance between providing structure and facilitating creativity. They were there to assist when needed but let the kids take the project in whatever direction they wanted. We were also able to buy craft materials for our other sites through the organizations generous gift of store credits. We were able to bring beading and decoupage tissue paper crafts to many of our sites.

If you have never heard of Seattle Recreative before, I highly recommend that you check out their website and visit their store at 8408 Greenwood Ave N in the Greenwood Neighborhood. In addition to their store they also offer a variety of classes and activities for adults and youth. We at HIP have been very grateful for their support this summer.