ATD Fourth World New Mexico Summer News
Gamerco Art Show!
After painting on and off for a full year, Gamerco Story Garden was ready to have an art show to celebrate the children’s talents on July 2nd, 2021. During the previous two weeks, the children had painted invitation cards for their families and neighbors, and decorated paper bags for the snacks.
On the day of the celebration, we had a speech honoring the painters’ thoughts on this year-long adventure. “It’s fun doing art because you can make your own creation”, said the eldest girl who is 11. A 6-year old boy fully agreed by adding “I make anything with paint”...
Then we unveiled the walls covered by 47 framed watercolor paintings! An I Spy game made us admire and observe them for a good while to find specific details like a bee, a cat, etc… One of our guests said, “It’s like a real exhibit, only outdoors!”
We saw the sense of freedom and mutual inspiration between the children, ending in collective pride!
In the meantime, the Gallup Flea Market is open for business, which means Story Garden is too! The Gamerco Art Show was appreciated there as well. We’ve started reconnecting with old friends, sharing the stories of loss, change and growth from the past year, and meeting new families. We will continue to have art and fun activities for all families and the community who visit the market every Saturday starting at 10 AM!
Story Garden on Wheels!
Thanks to many of you and to ATD Fourth World members around the country, we reached our fundraising goal for the Story Garden on Wheels cargo van! This van will help us take Story Garden on the road, to meet families outside their homes or in the heart of their communities throughout the region. The van will be customized and ready to go later this year.
Learning With Dakota
The school year is over, and local teachers are letting us know how they’ve used our customized learning kits with their students: “I used the habitats and the planets packets and both were amazingly put together and easy for my students to use while we were virtually instructing. We were still utilizing packet learning and these were quality additions. Thank you!” (Teacher at Mariano Lake Community School near Crownpoint, NM.) Other teachers are already looking ahead to next year: “My students thoroughly enjoyed the activities. This is definitely something I want to continue using.” “These were great learning tools that provided students with challenges and engagement while completing.” (Teachers at Del Norte School, Gallup NM.)
Since the schools were so eager for engaging materials for their students, ATD Fourth World worked with two Santa-Fe-based groups to provide hundreds more kits to schools in northwestern NM. Thank you to the Santa Fe Children’s Museum and Big Sky Learning for making your kits available to our students. Coming this fall: a new dinosaur-themed learning kit!