Nearly 50 people attended the Celebration Luncheon on Wednesday, June 4, and Barbara Sexton Smith of Fund for the Arts captivated the crowd. Her poignant speech showed that creativity and determination truly does overcome adversity.
Alumna Kim Nelson told her success story with The Patch and revealed that our staff is “sneaky…” and our hidden agenda is education. “A canoe trip isn’t just a canoe trip at The Patch,” Kim said, “It’s an opportunity for learning.”
Board President Walt Kunau and Executive Director Tracy Holladay shared stories of how Patch children and staff work together and use creativity to overcome challenges. So what does “The Art of Creating Opportunities” look like at the Cabbage Patch?
Perhaps it’s the fifth grade boy was so inspired by the assignment to create a new Greek hero for Creative Writing class that he wrote a full page about his idol Strong Man, even though he couldn’t even spell the word Greek when he first joined the class.
Maybe it’s the quick-tempered and previously troubled child who, after attending Medieval Day Camp, had this to say when another camper used his supplies: “I’m a knight now,” he said “and knights don’t let their anger take over. He shouldn’t have touched my stuff, but I can be noble and put my anger aside, because that is the honorable thing to do.”
Or maybe the education student with high functioning autism who overcame not only his struggles with reading comprehension, but also his self-consciousness after reading the story of a giraffe who overcomes feeling “different” and helps his animal pals work as a team to win a jungle soccer championship.
In all these instances, creativity helped these children discover their own strengths.
Guests enjoyed perusing Cabbage Patch children’s artwork in the Polly Williams Art Center after the program. We would like to give special thanks to Randy Gordon of Northeast Christian Church for giving the invocation for this very special event.
For more photos from the 2014 Celebration Luncheon, visit our Facebook album!