November 2018 Newsletter

message from Louise (founder & director)

I am excited and hopeful that the coming up occasions to GATHER will mean that we will see many of you in person! Check it out! We are having a day after Thanksgiving CAMPFIRE at the farm! I’m hoping many CHF alumni and old timers will be in town and will SHOW UP! There a LOT of things happening!  Come join us at the farm for a workshop! In the community at an event! Or at a fundraising Letter Writing Party!

I’m also excited that MARDI MAGOO and many of YOU are making our VOLUNTEER PROGRAM a bright happening thing! Volunteering is fun and there are lots of ways to get involved!

All of you who have asked for camp for adults! Come to our Gift Making Workshop for Adults in December!

Our summer camp schedule is . . . ready. What? I know, we’ve never ever, ever never had our camp schedule ready so early. We even have our Early Bird Registration for Spring Break Camp up and running! (crazy, right?)

Keep reading for all the news and details!

events upcoming!!

NOVEMBER 23, 4-9 p.m.- Homecoming!
A Gathering of all Clapping Hands Farm campers and counselors and families past and present!!!! Alumni and old timers I’ll admit I’m especially hoping you are in town for the holidays and will SHOW UP for this! Weather permitting we will have a CAMP FIRE, if it rains we will hang out around the wood stove upstairs. This event is POTLUCK, bring food to share or food to cook on the FIRE. No agenda, but potential for games, music, if ya’ll make it happen! And FRIENDS for sure! This is a family event and we expect parents to attend with their children and to be responsible for their safety during the event. Free, donations accepted.

Please let us know you are coming here!   Homecoming Gathering Nov. 23


NOVEMBER 24- Bynum Bazaar, 10 a.m. -2 p.m. Our campers from Tuesday Art Camp for Homeschoolers will be selling their handmade wares at this event! Come shop for gifts and support our campers! At the BYNUM GENERAL STORE: 950 Bynum Rd, Pittsboro, NC 27312


December 1, Saturday, 10-Noon, ZAWADI! Kwanzaa Gift Making Workshop! In Durham at Expotique:  319 W Main St, Durham, NC 27701. REGISTER HERE.  Clapping Hands, The Magic of African Rhythm, and other area artists will be helping to lead activities for people to make GIFTS that embody the spirit of Kwanzaa. See also the Zawadi workshop at Clapping Hands on December 8th!


DECEMBER 2, Sunday, 1-5 p.m.– gift making workshop for adults!
Cost sliding scale $25-$45 includes materials. Scholarships available.
Min. 5 Max 15 participants. Registration deadline of Nov. 24th

REGISTER - Dec. 2 GIFTS WORKSHOP

 

People have been begging us for “Camp for Adults” for decades. We are working up to it with these WORKSHOPS for adults!

Come join Mardi and Louise for an afternoon of  creating home-made gifts for people you love! In the great company of other people who love to make things! Here’s what we have planned:

Mardi wants to make homemade Knitting Needles and Fizzy Bath Bombs! The knitting needles are simply a sharpened sanded dowel with a decorative ball of sculpy on the end. The Fizzy Bath Bombs are fragrant with essential oils, invigoratingly fizzy, and luxurient with coconut oil. You can add spices, herbs, salts to personalize your creations.

Louise wants to make decorated Journals  with collages on the covers. You can work with  painted paper, cut paper, or magazine pictures to create an image that reflects the passions and personality of the person you are gifting it to. Louise also will be decorating candles with colorful waxes that are shaped in your warm fingers and then pressed onto the candle. Beautiful! You can create in colorful wax an intention, a word, an image to invoke the blessings you want to bestow upon the person you are giving it to! Every time they light it those intentions will shine forth!


December 8, Saturday, 1-5  p.m. ZAWADI, Kwanzaa gift making at Clapping Hands Farm

REGISTER - Dec. 8, ZAWADI WORKSHOP

 

A family oriented gift making workshop for Kwanzaa gifts. Zawadi are gifts that are given at Kwanzaa. They are usually handmade, educational and/or inspirational, reflecting the spirit of Kwanzaa. At our Zawadi workshop we  will be dressing up clothes pin dolls with African fabrics, making Morabaraba board games, decorating Kwanzaa journals, printing with Adinkra Stamps on fabric or notecards. Space limited to 15 participants. Suggested Donation $10-$25/person,  no one turned away, scholarships available. Please Register by December 1. (see also the Zawadi workshop in Durham on Dec. 1)


Tuesday Art Camp for Homeschoolers 

Session 3 and 4 are open for registration now. Early Bird Discounts end December 1. Our first two sessions have run full, so encourage early sign up.

REGISTER - ART CAMP

 

This camp happens on Tuesday 9- 3:30.

SESSION THREE: January 8- February 26 with March 5 reserved as a weather make up day.
Eight Weeks. $450. ($425 if you sign up and pay by December 1; $400 if you sign up and pay for BOTH Spring sessions by December 1.)
FOCUS GROUP CHOICES:
OUTDOOR EXPLORERS
ART WITH LOUISE

SESSION FOUR: March 12- May 7, BUILDERS CAMP!
NO CLASS ON APRIL 16. Eight weeks of camp. Weather make up day reserved on May 14. $450. ($425 if you sign up and pay by December 1; $400 if you sign up and pay for BOTH Spring sessions by December 1.)
FOCUS GROUP CHOICES:
CARPENTRY and CONSTRUCTION
PATTERN MAKING and SEWING
TAKE APART and FIX IT

fundraising letter writing parties!

We will be scheduling FUNDRAISING LETTER WRITING PARTIES in all the towns and cities around here from mid November through mid-December. Our Fall Fundraising Letter raised $6000 for our scholarship program last year with about 25 people sending 170 letters. This year our goals is to involve 50 people from the camp community and send 300+ letters and hope to raise $10,000! All the money raised goes to our big beautiful scholarship program. We’ll need LOTS of volunteers to make our goal!

We provide a beautiful letter, (thank you Christie Croft for writing our 2018-2019 fundraising letter!) You bring your address book, add a personal note to each letter and send them with love to your friends, family, co-workers and contacts! You can send letters from home (let us know how many you need and we’ll get them to you.) But it is much more effective to come to one of our letter writing parties.  It really helps to have the time set aside that way; the letters have a way of actually getting out versus lying around until you guiltily recycle them. PLUS you get to do it with friends and we’ll provide envelopes and stamps!

PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU CAN COME TO ONE OF THESE PARTIES! So we can plan the food!

 

We hope to have 8 letter writing parties on the schedule. Here are the ones we have landed so far!

  • November 18, 1-3 at Jeanne Cosmey’s house (Khallori and Daiyu’s mom) on the Durham/Chapel Hill line (not far from Trader Joes). Potluck Snacks.
  • November 25, 2-5pm at Leigh Hall and Michael Smith’s home (Walker’s parents) in Carrboro.  Join us for cider and soup to round out your Thanksgiving weekend!
  • November 30, Friday, 5-8 p.m. at Elizabeth and Trevor Thompson’s house (Sophia and Corwin’s parents) in Pittsboro.   Salad and soup’s on!
  • December 6, Thursday, 6-8 p.m. at Aaron and Pam Fleischauer’s home (Jack’s parents) on the North side of Pittsboro.
  • December 12, Wed, 5-8, AmyBeth Kessinger’s home (Belinda and Linda Richmond’s mom) in Saxapahaw.  Join us for some chili!  

Would you like to host a fundraising party?  It’s fun and easy!  We hope to have three additional parties.  Good locations for these might be: North Chatham, Siler City, Silk Hope, or Durham.

ukulele band practice!

Ukulele Band Practice is for people who have learned to play ukulele at Clapping Hands and want to keep practicing and learning! The Ukulele Band represents Clapping Hands at community events and fundraising parties!

PITTSBORO UKULELE BAND PRACTICE:
Tuesdays at Clapping Hands Farm from 4:00- 5:30 p.m.

CHAPEL HILL/DURHAM UKULELE BAND PRACTICE:
Sunday November 18, 1-3 p.m.
Sunday December 9, 1-3 p.m.

please let us know if you are planning to join any of these band practices: clappinghandsfarm@gmail.com


volunteer opportunities

  • washing things and returning them clean- simple things that need doing regularly or occasionally- for example, running lost and found through the washing machine and then taking the stuff to donate.
  • workdays- we need to gather more firewood for our winter workshops
  • making stuff- we need to make art cards, Louise wants some help testing projects.
  • events-  we try and make a regular appearance at community events to let people know who we are and what we are doing! Volunteers are needed to run activities and talk with people.
  • fundraising- Host a fundraising party (an event where you invite people YOU know who you think might want to support clapping hands farm to your house, we provide information and entertainment, and collect donations.) Send fundraising letters (see above). Host a fundraising letter writing party in your house.
  • Tuesday Art Camp- we can use volunteers to lead projects, assist with projects and work with campers at our Tuesday Art Camp all year long.

Interested in VOLUNTEERING in any of these ways? Please fill out this simple form to get plugged in. VOLUNTEER FORM

Or contact Volunteer Coordinator Mardi Magoo at clappinghandsfarm@gmail.com

new website!

Our new website has been a LONG time coming! I was hoping it would be live when I sent out this newsletter, alas, it is SO CLOSE, but not quite ready, but really it should be a matter of days now.  Please keep checking . . .  it will be hooked up to the same web address www.ClappingHandsFarm.com. You’ll know you are at the NEW website if you land on our home page and find a VIDEO with this image shining out at you.

I really hope you love it!


spring break and summer camps!

Spring Break and Summer Camps are posted on our new website.

Early Bird Registration for Spring Break Camp is open, with an Early Bird Deadline of January 31.

REGISTER - SPRING BREAK CAMP

 

Look for Summer Camp Registration in December.

coming in 2019

Advanced Ukulele Workshop in early January. Tentatively weekend of January 11-12-13

Songwriting Workshops, hoping to have one or two this winter-spring. Kathleen Hannon, Shana Tucker, and Vessna Scheff are all interested in leading one!

Outdoor Explorers, planning on starting our Outdoor Explorers program two Friday nights a month in the new year. Stay tuned for details!

Storytelling Workshop with Louise- this performance oriented class for ADULTS will meet weekly for 8 weeks and culminate in a sharing of stories for friends and family. Time and Location TBA. Please register your INTEREST by emailing louiseomotokessel@gmail.com

thanks for all these successful recent events!

We had a wonderful FUNDRAISING PARTY November 4th at Celebrity Dairy. Lots of volunteers provided a mini art party for the children who came (lots of NEW potential campers!), our Ukulele Band sang out strong! Lots of new people heard about our programs at Clapping Hands. Lots of camp parents gave beautiful testimonials. And we raised a bunch of money for our scholarship program $2145 to be exact, which will be MATCHED! Thank you so much to hosts John & Elizabeth Bonitz and Brit and Fleming of Celebrity Dairy ,  to all the volunteers (to many to name!), to all the donors, and all our new friends!

These fundraising parties are our favorite way to raise money for our scholarship program because they are not only super effective in the fundraising realm, but they are as close as we get to giving new supporters a real taste of camp. The contact is personal and inspiring.

I am looking to put fundraising parties on the calendar for 2019— if you are interested in hosting one, please let us know. You just need to be willing to open your home  and invite YOUR friends, neighbors, colleagues, customers etc. to come have an enjoyable afternoon of camp entertainment and conversation in support of our scholarship program. Call or email Louise at 919-542-5599, clappinghandsfarm@gmail.com

Volunteers also showed up to represent Clapping Hands at the MONSTER DASH on Oct. 13.

The Clapping Hands Farm Ukulele Band played at a fundraising for the Chatham Arts Council’s Artists in the Schools program on November 11. We  also provided a hands-on art project available in the lobby. Tommy Edwards and the Blue Grass Experience was the featured performer! Thank you Mardi, Candace, Ben, Sarah, Angelica, Lenore, Sofia and Sophia for representing Clapping Hands so well!

A small but mighty crew of volunteers cut and hauled firewood on our WORKDAY Oct. 20. Thank you! Mardi, Cosmo, Louise, and Dave Hopp. Our winter workshops will appreciate the warmth!  We should do this again soon! Let us know if you’d like to help!

We did our first SONGWRITING WORKSHOP for teens and adults with Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow of Emma’s Revolution on Oct. 13. It was so wonderful, we’ve decided to make songwriting workshops a regular feature of our upcoming programming! Stay tuned!