2009 Summer Camp Support Letter

Dear Friend,
Last summer Urban Arts held three weeks of camp in Detroit for inner city kids. We worked with over 120 children and had wonderful camps! It went so well that our partnering ministries have invited us back, and we have added a new partner! Five weeks of camp are planned for the upcoming summer with City Mission, Central Detroit Christian and Highland Park Community Outreach.

Our goal is to expand the children’s exposure to the performing and visual arts through daily hands-on activities and Christ-centered teaching. This year’s theme is “Celebrate the Gift”. Children will experience the elements of visual art, music, drama and dance. Daily lunch and a snack will be provided. Each camp will end on Friday evening with a dinner and closing performance for friends and family.
This is a faith based ministry. Currently, we have very little funding. So, we are asking individuals, groups, and churches to prayerfully consider sponsoring one or more children for a week of camp. The total cost for a child to attend is $80.00. This amount covers all meals, art supplies, a camp t-shirt, and transportation. Checks may be made out to START Ministries, a Michigan 501-C3 non-profit organization. START (Short Term Ambassador Relief Teams) is graciously handling our funding for this summer with no administrative fee. Therefore, 100% of the money donated to Urban Arts will go toward these summer camps.

Also, enclosed is a list of supplies needed for the camps this summer. We are striving to complete this list from volunteered gift cards or contributions from friends and family. Please consider helping us in this area of need.
If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me.
Serving Him,

Katie Beth Hostetter
Urban Arts Director

“The children at City Mission have so much talent and potential. The Urban Arts program helps children identify and put into practice their talent and potential. We are glad to have such an outstanding partnership.” --Nicole Aikens, Co-Director of City Mission

ITEMS CAN BE PURCHASED WITH A GIFT CARD FROM THESE STORES:
Sam's Club, Wal-mart, Meijers, Costco, Speedway, BP, Mobile)
sandwich makings
snacks (goldfish, fruit snacks, ect.)
cookies
juice boxes (100)
Mini-DV taps for video camera (30)
colored gaffer tape
100 brown paper lunch sacks
zip lock sandwich bags
3 CD players
300 CD-R disks
gift card for gas stations (Speedway, Meijers, BP, etc)

Crazy For Christ

The theme for the Urban Art kids at CDC this semester is "Crazy 4 Christ". We are talking about how we can show others every day, in every action, how crazy for Christ we are. The previous week we encouraged the kids to bring something in that they enjoy doing and share how they can be "crazy for Christ" while doing it. We had one girl come up before class who shyly showed us her musical recorder. She asked if she could share a song on the recorder. As simple as it sounds, Tyana wanted to use what she learned on her little plastic recorder and play for God. She is 1 in 50+ kids. If she is the only one who "gets it" this semester, it will be totally worth everything I do.

Summer in February

Here's a quick update on what Urban Arts is looking like for this summer. We are again, partnering with City Mission and Central Detroit Christian for 2 weeks each. Both organizations will be able to offer a week of elementary day camp as well as a week of middle and high school day camp. An additional week is pending with a ministry in Highland Park, MI. (just on the outskirts of Detroit)

It's crazy to look out my window at piles of snow and ice cycles as far as you can possibly see, but it takes so much preparation to get commitments from volunteers, line up people to help prep for the crafts, create a program, and find the funding among many other things! I'm really excited about the 2009 camps! I have the theme, but I'm going to keep that a secret for a little while longer:) You'll just have to check back!

Keep us in your prayers! Grant proposals are being mailed over the next few months!

Second Semester in Full Swing

Urban Arts is back from Christmas break! I have the same group of kids at City Mission but this semester we are focusing on visual arts! They are learning so many cool things. The theme for Central Detroit Christian Urban Arts this semester is "Crazy for Christ". We will be focusing on drama, music and dance with the kids. They are going to help write an original drama script for the performance in May! Enjoy the pictures of the City Mission kids working on their art projects.

Rehearsal Rehearsal

Have you ever needed to be in two places at once before? Well, we all know that it's really not possible but if there was a night I could have picked to be in two places at once, it was tonight. My City Mission kids had their dress rehearsal for the performance at Kensington Church and my Central Detroit Christian kids had their dress rehearsal for their performance the following week. I ended up at CDC. We had a lot of work to do, but the volunteer teachers were amazing and helped me out soo much! After a very long rehearsal, I think we are ready for the performance next week!

Working Hard

I love these kids! They're practicing for the Christmas program at CDC.

The Best Story So Far...

So on Tuesday night, I handed out 54 CD's to the kids at CDC so that they would be able to practice their music at home. I wasn't really sure how well the music was going over with the kids after the second week, but after hearing this story, I know! Laura, who is helping teach the classes with me, relayed this story to me after talking with a CDC staff member. This staff member was driving a van full of kids home after the program and as soon as the kids hopped in the van they started saying, "Mark! We got our very own CD's! We get to take them home and keep them and listen to them and practice with them!" They then proceeded to ask Mark to put the CD in so they could jam to it. So as the kids were being dropped off at their homes, they were singing along to the Christmas songs!:) I guess they are liking it!:) That was such an encouragement to me and put a smile on my face, so I just wanted to share it!!

Opening Day for Urban Arts After School

Yesterday was the kick off for the after school programs with Urban Arts. I did double duty in the city starting with the program at City Mission in the afternoon and then jogging over to central Detroit to teach at CDC. Both programs ran pretty smoothly. My friend, Laura, who is helping me on Tuesdays did a great job team teaching with me!

At City Mission, we are working with the 4-6 graders at the academy. It's a small group of kids, but they are wonderful! We are focusing on drama and vocal music this fall. A good friend of mine directs a children's program called New Community Kids at Kensington Community Church. We have decided to partner with them and give the City Mission kids a chance to experience a performance on a "real" stage with the kids from NCK. I think this is going to be such a great experience for them!

Central Detroit Christian has us working with kindergarten through 6th grade. We have a lot of kid! Two grades rotate at a time to us for a 30 minute period. The other two segments they get are Bible and Academics. It's really a neat way to provide all three elements for the kids. The only downfall is the 30 minutes feels like about 10 after we start working with them. I know I am going to be asking the Lord to multiply my time!

In both programs we are focusing on our Christmas performance at the beginning of December. City Mission is learning a Christmas medley that will tie in with the kids at KCC and then will be working on another Christmas song and short drama for their local performance. Central Detroit Christian kids are working on a 5 song Christmas medley with choreography and props. Both are going to be pretty cute!

Writing curriculum-sounds like fun, huh:)

I had a good meeting today with CDC, Central Detroit Christian. I was asked to create the curriculum for the K-5th grade arts portion of their Breakthrough Enrichment program that is held on Tuesday nights. I was planning on teaching an Urban Arts class for middle school girls already, but when I was approached with this task, I prayed about it and felt like this was a greater need in CDC's ministry. Since I am partnering with different ministries in Detroit, I believe strongly in being sensitive to the needs of the ministry. So, for at least the first term, through Christmas, I'll be focusing on the elementary kids.

I am going to miss my summer staff. I have only one volunteer who is available to serve with me on Tuesday nights. Thank goodness though! She will be focusing on the music and I on the drama. As I type this, my brain is going in a million directions thinking about what the kids will perform for the program. Pray that the Lord continues to give me creativity in designing a program for this fall and for the next term. (and of course, those of you who have creative minds, feel free to comment with any ideas you may have!)

Urban Arts Camp Video 2008 (short version)

Here's a look at this past summer working with the kids in Detroit. There are video clips at the end including the three different performances.

God's Week of Camp

This was by far the hardest week of Urban Arts camp. But it taught me so much and streached my character in ways I never would have imagined. The entire week was constantly changing minute by minute and I was having to remind myself to be "flexie cookie". (that's a whole different story for another time)

I found out on Monday afternoon that the kids would be only having four full days of camp because the ministry we were partnering with had a roller skating field trip planned for all 175+ people on the last day. Since we lost a day this drastically changed our game plan for teaching the performance pieces to our 45 kids.

On Tuesday I wanted to get confirmation about our performance time and location. The church we were holding the camp in was not open on Friday so we would not be able to do our afternoon performance on their amazing stage. Plan B-find another location. Ha! It sounds simple, but then we have to think about a dress rehearsal and transportation for the kids, etc. The decision was made that the dress rehearsal would take place at our original location on the stage on Thursday if we could get permission. We would use the sound equipment from another church volunteering at the elementary camp that week. Pushing the dress rehearsal up a day cause the class schedules and art classes to be bumped around again. Once that was all settled we continued to move through Tuesday and Wednesday fairly smoothly. Thursday came at us more quickly than realized. All morning we worked with the kids on the stage, blocking and rehearsing where they would stand for the OTHER stage which was a different size. All in all, it went fairly well. Some of the boys didn't want to participate and were acting up, but I believe it is because they were nervous about practicing in front of the girls and other helpers. As we went through the rehearsal, they became more comfortable and started to participate more. Thursday afternoon was spent finishing the t-shirts the kids would wear for the performance and completing their art projects.

My team arrived at the performance location (new church) about 12:30. The kids were arriving at 1:15 from roller skating and we were going to run through the program before the 2:00 performance. At 12:45, after things were loaded in and we were going to check the sound, I realized something was missing. The sound equipment. Um, major problem. I contacted my "go-to" person from the ministry and found out that the volunteer church had already packed up their system because they thought we would be using the church's equipment. My "go-to" person said that we did not get permission from the church to use their sound equipment. I admit, I started to freak out. How do you have a quality performance that is dependent on sound without sound? A good friend of mine who was there took me aside and said, "Katie, we need to pray. God has this figured out." She was right. As people were praying, others were on their cell phones pulling out all of the stops to get favors owed to them and ending up owing favors. Central Detroit Christian, the ministry we were partnering with this week, had a Fender portable sound system and 2 mics we could use. That was a good start. I knew though that we would need monitors as well as speakers. That system only had 2 speakers. Kensington Community Church agreed to let us use their portable Fender system as well. Someone actually drove it 40 minutes down to the performance location within minutes of getting permission from KCC. Here's the cool thing-we didn't know that both systems were the same and could work together. When we hooked everything everything up, it worked beautifully.

The kids were excited to perform and as I looked at them fueled up in their seats, ready to go, I realized that what matters the most is being a light to these kids. Giving them an opportunity to grown in Him and encouraging them. I God did that this week. It was His week.

If These Walls Could Speak....

If these walls could speak they would share how loud it was when over 40 middle schoolers walked up 3 flights of double stairs to get to Urban Arts today.

If these walls could speak, they would share the excitement they saw on some faces of kids when they found out what their camp was about this week...and the groans on a few faces when they found out they had to perform.

If these walls could speak, they would share how extremely hot the third floor is without central or unit air.

If these walls could speak, they would share the incredible imagination some of the girls had in drama class when they had to "become" a piano.

If these walls could speak, they would express in amazement the talent some of the boys have when it came to dance class-like standing on their own hands and flipping backwards.

If these walls could speak, they would tearfully share that only a handful of the kids had breakfast and probably would not be getting dinner at home.

If these walls could speak, they would thank the kids in art class for decorating their walls with colorful pieces of art.

If these walls could speak, they would continue singing the songs the voices raised up in their music classes today.

If these walls could speak, they would say they are eagerly awaiting 9am tomorrow morning.

Sista Circle Class 6-Dress Rehearsal

I took a big breath, said a quick prayer and walked into the building. Chaos--the girls from my class were coming down the stairs from our classroom as Renee and I were going up. The teacher before us never showed up so the girls were "doin' their own thing"..(whatever that was). We had to round everyone up and go up three flights of stairs to our room. I said another prayer. I really needed to have a better night with the girls. This was our last night of class and rehearsal before next week's performance. Well, the Lord answered my prayers because the night went pretty well. The girls got down the song and we really worked hard on the poem. Attitudes were fairly good throughout the night. So, next week we will see how many of the girls will show up. I hope all of them, but some were threatening not to because of being scared or embarrassed. I know they will do a great job!

Sista Circle Class 5-backtrack?

As a teacher I've had good teaching days and bad teaching days. I admit, sometimes it's me, and sometimes it's the students. Last night was a rough night for Renee and me. As focused as the girls were the previous week, they were the opposite this week. Talking all the time, not respecting us or one another. It was very frustrating and difficult. Knowing that we only have one more class before our performance didn't help either. But as I tried to maintain order with the girls, it crossed my mind that everyone has these kind of days. I have no idea what events happened during the day to create the class we had last night, but being consistent and showing them love had to happen no matter what. At the end of class, one little girl, Portia, came up to me and gave me a big hug. She thanked me for teaching and being there. Once again, it made it all worth it. We took some pictures with the entire program last night as well. I've included some of those for you to take a look at.

Sista Circle class 3-beginning of breakthrough!

At the end of class tonight, my eyes were misted over. I felt the Lord giving us breakthrough! But, let me back up. Renee, my teaching partner, wasn't able to come down to CDC tonight so another mutual friend stepped in for her. Laura is great! She is really good with the girls and she's got a great voice so it worked out well.

Before Laura and I got going, Evette held the bible study with the girls. The topic was on friends: how to be a true friend, what a Godly friend is, etc. The girls were a bit rowdy, and it seemed like we were stopping every 45 seconds to get them to stop talking or being rude. I know it takes time to break bad habits, but I don't know that these girls are held to the high standards we hold them to during any other part of the week. And if that's the case, will only 2 hours a week make a difference? I can only pray that it does. A good example that Evette came up with was how there was a crack in our sister circle. She asked the girls to identify the cracks. Several of the girls gave very observant responses. When she finished sharing, I transitioned into the music part of the evening. We are teaching them the Kirk Franklin version of "Our God is an Awesome God". Laura did a great job with it! There are two girls who don't like to participate. I haven't figured them out yet, but I'm really praying that God will show me how to connect with them. I continued to work on pantomiming again this week. I think the girls are getting the hang of it, except they can't do it without at least one of them talking...go figure:)

The class was about over, but I had brought a Maya Angelou poem, Touched by an Angel, to share with the girls. I wasn't sure how it would go. Some kids either love poetry or hate it. Those that hate it are the ones who usually don't understand it. (that was me for a portion of my life). So, I prefaced the whole thing with "you may not understand what you are about to hear but give it a chance". I recited the poem interpretively. The girls actually clapped. Now, I don't tell you that because I'm all proud and happy about my little performance. I share that because that response told me that they "got it". I know some were a little confused, but they appreciated it. If they appreciate it, I can teach it more easily! I gave each girl a copy of the poem to take home to study. I'm excited to work through it with them next week. That isn't why my eyes were misted over though. I asked for a volunteer to pray. Several girls raised their hands. The first young lady said she just had something to say. So I let her. She said how grateful she was to be in the class with the other girls. Then another girl raised her hand and asked to say a word. She thanks us for coming and taking the time to share with them. Hearing those two girls make everything worth it. I only see them 2 hours a week, but the Lord is moving in the lives of each of these girls and He is graciously allowing me to be an instrument. I stand in awe.

Sista 2 Sista class 1

I just got back from my first evening with 10 awesome middle school girls who live in Detroit. CDC, Central Detroit Christian, has a great program going where dinner is provided, tutors are available, basketball is open court, and different types of classes are offered on each Tuesday night. My friend Renee, who is helping with the Urban Arts, and I volunteered to teach a 7 week class to get these girls interested in the arts. I have to say that they seemed pretty interested, they just had not had the exposure to it. I guess both of the middle schools they came from cut the music and drama programs. So, I started off with explaining pantomime and demonstrating one. We had some fun with that. Then the girls started practicing with me. We played a drama game and then it was Renee's turn to do the music side of it. She warmed them up, explained the importance of correct breathing and we did some fun vocal exercises. She worked on rhythm and introduced a song that we will do for the performance. All in all, it was a good night and flew by! I am praying and hoping that these are some of the girls who can come to the camp this summer.

Sister to Sister

I'm really excited to be a part of the Sister to Sister program at Central Detroit Christian Ministry this April and May. I will be driving to Detroit on Tuesday nights to teach drama and music for middle school kids who live in the city. The classes start April 1st! Keep me in your prayers! I'll keep ya updated on how things are going. This is a volunteer program that will also get my foot in the door for Urban Arts this summer. Exciting!