Here's our good news from the first year of Imaginative Journeys: Four camps, ending triumphantly with our Fifties camp in spring. We're planning three summer camps, including our first Elemental Journey science camp, and a Camp Snipesville in Savannah (first time in the big city!)
Our camps have returned most of the money we have generated to our local community, including more than $1600 in rental fees to the Unitarian Church and the Parkwood motel. We involved (and publicized) several local business and organizations.
Thanks to you, we had nine kids on scholarships go through our camps. We heard fantastic feedback about the impact that this experience had on these children. I even blush to say it, because it's hard to believe, but I heard that one kid recovered from her depression and started going back to school. Unreal. And awesome.
Now, looking into the second year, I need to call on your support once again. I'm aiming high this time, because I want five places at every camp to go to low-income kids. Your gifts also subsidize every kid, because they enable us to run a high-quality camp at an affordable cost--only $140 a week for a camp that would easily cost more than twice that in a metro area.
Why ask for your support? We are still in start-up mode, and not yet in a position to apply for grants. In the current economic climate, we have no guarantees that grants will materialize: Georgia, shortsightedly, is ending (not cutting, ending) arts and humanities grants funding. To continue in Georgia, we need people to step up and partner with us. I should mention that while I have paid several young people in the program, I have yet to earn any money from the program myself: Indeed, I have covered several of the payments for our $800 annual insurance policy from my own pocket. I'll be honest: I can't afford to continue doing that.
Please go to our new Kickstarter campaign, "Time Travel in the Deep South" and watch the video! You'll see ust some of what we have accompished with your help. Please spread the word among your friends, encourage them to watch the video too, and ask them to join us! We're aiming for $5000, so the more, the merrier!

I am getting rewards ready! Please enter your address in Kickstarter--if you have not already done so-- so I can send your reward to you. If you opted *not* to receive a reward, it's not too late to change your mind! Those of you who are to receive copies of my *second* book, please note that this will be shipped separately to you in late November/early December.

Thank you!

Now, on to Camp Snipesville!
So far, we have 18 kids registered (out of a possible 25) of whom 9 are receiving full or partial scholarships, thanks to you.
I look forward to keeping you posted on our progress.

One of the team approached me today about the possibility of a partial scholarship for a ten-year-old boy she knows. The answer, thanks to all of you, was yes.
This kid will get to spend a week marinating in World War Two: He'll meet a genuine paratrooper who served in Europe (James T. Sapp, a wonderful man who frequently speaks to elementary schools in the area); he'll handle real artifacts from both sides of the Atlantic; he'll play seventy year old card and board games; he'll learn to swing dance, and to sing some of the catchiest tunes ever. He'll hear Ed Murrow describe Buchenwald, and Harry Truman announce the world's first atomic bomb. And he will visit the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, with its real planes and cool hands-on stuff.
Of course, for every kid we serve, hundreds more will miss out. Many, sadly, will do so because Camp Snipesville isn't something that their parents are used to. But many, even more sadly, will do so because we haven't yet the means to serve every interested kid.
It's not too late to help us out, or encourage friends to do so. And every dollar helps.

It's our last full day of fundraising! Tomorrow at mid-day, it's all over.
Can you give us a last-minute boost? Share this with a friend or family member? Twitter and Facebook one last time?
:-)

--Annette

If I were a prospective Kickstarter backer looking for a cool project, I might look askance at Camp Snipesville: How does this kids' program belong among so many creative artistic endeavors?

The creativity begins with me developing a script of sorts: Planning how to interpret American and British WWII history for the kids, and how to do it in the most entertaining, interactive, and thought-provoking way possible.

What will happen when a character in 1940s dress bursts into our camp and announces that war has begun? When a church hall in Statesboro, GA in 2009 suddenly--chillingly--becomes a darkened air raid shelter in London in the fall of 1940? When the room is once again transformed, with a minimum of props, but using sounds, smells (yes, smells), and imagination, into a WWII home?

We never quite know, so we always make lots of room for improvisation...

I often introduce ideas proposed by the Team's college students. Although few are history majors, they find themselves excited by the children's enthusiasm, and are inspired to learn more about our particular subject--and about history in general.

We attune ourselves to the kids' ongoing feedback: We try to reach every child, and every sense. The kids are able to handle real WWII artifacts, sing and dance to period music, and meet people who really lived through the War. We try to engage every kid, and help them discover their passions, whether in history, art, music, or any number of other subjects.

By the time the week of October 12-16 is over, we will all be exhausted--but we will know that we have spent a week in a space of our own creation, one that connects past and present, kids and college students, as we bridge a gap of 70 years, and an ocean apart. I can't emphasize enough how much kids enjoy this experience, and how life-changing it can be for kids in a small Georgia town.

Thanks for teaming with us to make it happen.