Press Conference for Summer Camp

The press conference on Tuesday was great and thanks to everyone who came out and showed their support for us! I think the kids had the best time doing some fun little projects while we chatted about what we are up to with the summer camp and our expansion that is happening this year.

We get to borrow the Big Red Shed in Milford this year! Yeah! It's a really nice new building that is right beside the playground and Mt.Tabor playhouse which is the old church in Milford. I love the fact that we will be able to walk with the kids on the nature trail around the mill pond and over to the library during the week at camp.

People have asked me a number of times how this all started so I'll go back about 15 yrs ago to how it all began.

Tim and I met & graduated from Sheridan College's illustration program together in 1994 started doing freelance work as illustrators & graphic designers in Toronto. I wanted to teach kids art as well so I set up art workshops in High Park for a couple of summers. Then when my kids entered the school system I was able to volunteer in the classrooms and get to know the teachers and principal. My kids kept asking me to come in the school more and more and the teachers were asking me to help every week that there was an art project happening. Finally I asked the principal for use of an empty room to start a lunch program called the "Art Club". That started it all... there were so many kids wanting to come we had to set up new groups of kids every few weeks so that everyone had a chance.

Four years ago we decided to make the big move to Prince Edward County with visions of a new life. We opened up the Galloping Goat Gallery & Gift Shop in the little barn on our property in Black River by the well known Black River Cheese Factory. This has turned into a very popular spot, I'm not sure if it's the gorgeous view from the river shoreline, the fun, eclectic gifts we carry or the fact that we welcome people holding ice cream cones and even dogs on leashes!

My kids started almost immediately after the move asking for the Art Club to make it's debut here in the County. I went to South Marysburgh's principal asking for space and started the first after school Art Club. From there I added Pinecrest Public School, then Sophiasburgh Public School. This year with Tim's help and his very own stop motion animation art club we added CML Snider Public School, Queen Elizabeth in Picton and St.Gregory's Catholic School.

We had a 3 week Summer Art Camp in our backyard last year. We were filled to capacity with kids! This year I started in January trying to figure out a plan as to how to find a bigger space for the Art Camp and chatted to Bruce Dowdell in Milford and he suggested that the South Marysburgh Recreation Committee might be able to help me out. Off I went to their meeting in January with my papers of budgets and proposals and Chris Pengally, chair of S. Marysburgh Rec. Committee was more than happy to offer rental of Mt.Tabor's red shed to our camp. They also offered to sponsor 4 spots in the Art Camp for children that might not otherwise be able to attend due to finances.

Is this not a great community? Everytime I've hit some wall or glitch I start to ask around and always there has been support, advice or information that I needed to keep moving forward. It really is an amazing group of people that live here, I am so lucky to have all this support.

I also have Carol Rutledge partnering with me on the Summer Camp. She is like an energizer bunny with so much creative and musical talent it's going to make it a blast to work with her this summer.

Brianna Gorsline (1^st year student at Sheridan College) is also back with us to help with the summer camp along with Stacey York (2^nd year student at Trent University). They are both creative young ladies with lots of experience working with kids and Stacey is even going through University to become a teacher!

The Summer Art Camp will run weekly starting July 5^th for 4 weeks, 9 am to 4 pm. Children need to be at least 7 yrs old or starting Grade 1 this September. Cost is $188 (GST included and materials supplied) for a full week. 10% discount to siblings in the same week.

My approach to teaching art is to create a fun and interactive environment for children to play, explore and create. This is not your typical classroom experience. There will be imaginative themes changing weekly that range from Magic is All Around to Colour Wonder. For more Summer Art Camp details go to the website Galloping Goat Gallery

For further information please contact me, Lesley Snyder by telephone at 613-476-9696 or email at lesley@gallopinggoat.com.