Hello, beautiful D4RT benefactors! I hope this November morning finds you well. 

Your incentives will be on their way to you very soon, Meanwhile, this post is here to serve as a home to the six articles I've written about the Yanataló experience. First, a word from my class:

Yes, thank you. I can never say that enough. Not just for your financial contributions, but for all the love and support that's surrounded this project from the start and made the workshop possible. And the mural, too:

Called Ice Cream Mountain, it wouldn't exist without the invaluable help of a couple of students, another teacher, the school's night watchman and a kind local couple. They visited me and my ladder throughout the day, offering food, drinks, and when time began to run out, their hands. We painted for over twelve hours to the sounds of pigs, chickens and cicadas, until the sun dipped back into the jungle and it was time to toast and go home. You can't enter or leave Yantaló without passing our bright young adventurers.

Peruse vast photo-documentation and read all about D4RT in Yantaló in the articles below!

• D4RT Launches in Yantaló - Workshop Overview
• Jungle Orchids and Lost Dogs - Moyobamba to Yantaló and Back
• Dreaming Big in the Amazon - Luis Vasquez and Yantaló Peru Foundation
• The Yantaló Kindergarden Muraling
  
• Jungle Citrus
• D4RT Debriefing

Thanks to your support, the first round of D4RT is funded. THANK YOU!

I'll be leaving for Yantaló in two short weeks, the mural is conceptualized, mural paint is being purchased by my contact in Lima on Monday and next week is dedicated to buying supplies, which I'll be stuffing into two 50-punt suitcases and bringing to the Yantaló school myself.

If you haven't already, please make 100% sure that your donation process is complete, so as not to prolong the already lengthy Amazon  processing time. I only have two weeks to take care of everything and every minute counts.

Thank you all again. I can't wait to update this with photos of Yantaló and kids' art!

We've hit our goal of $5,000! After just 8 days, we've managed to make D4RT in Yantalo real. A massive, glowing thank you to everyone who contributed, blogged, tweeted and liked!

This means I'll spend the next three weeks researching, compiling shopping lists, finding the best way to get art supplies to Yantaló and conceptualizing the mural I'll create with my class. I'd love to add "planning  the future of D4RT" to this list. Here is how it would break down:

• $13,000: D4RT lands in a Cambodian orphanage in the summer of 2012.
  
• $20,000: one more D4RT 2012 installment is funded. Ideally, this will be a second visit to Yantaló to continue work on establishing a permanent art program there.
  
• And so on. The more we raise now, the bigger and better this becomes. When I think about how vast D4RT can be and the kind of difference it can make, I get actual chills. Networks, corporate supply donations, large-scale public art pieces and permanent art programs taking root. It could happen, and will, with your support.
  

Once again, thank you all! Let's make this whoosh.

It's been a little over four days since the launch of the D4RT Kickstarter and, thanks to your exceptional generosity, we're over halfway there. I'm happy and hopeful and grateful beyond words, and I'm sending radio-beams of pure gratitude to everyone who has backed D4RT and helped get the word out so far!

Now back to that "hopeful" part. Of course, I'm hoping to reach my goal of $5,000 so I can bring the very first installment of D4RT to Yantaló. $5,000 is pretty small compared to the amounts usually raised on Kickstarter, but I set this goal lower, because I didn't want to take any chances. It's the bare minimum required for supplies, travel, incentives, as well as the sizable percentage taken out by Kickstarter and Amazon.  

Here is what happens if we beat that goal:

If I raise $13,000, I will bring D4RT to a Cambodian orphanage in the summer of 2012.

If I raise $20,000, it will be enough to fund one more D4RT 2012 installment, likely a second visit to Yantaló to continue work on establishing a permanent art program there.

The more I raise now, the more time and resources I'll be able to devote to rigorous preparation and planning, establishing a full-fledged mobile art class and international network devoted to bringing art education and public art projects program to schools and other children's organizations in developing countries. 

Once again, thank you all! Please continue to get the word out, and help make D4RT real.