Your wonderful magazine has accompanied me on many trips to enjoy and share with
other English tourists. Presently, I have issues here in Brazil on an annual trip to the isolated
windsurfing village of Jericoacoara. Each year, Collingwood community donates sports
equipment and art supplies for my volunteer teaching. This year, I am using your cover
art to inspire young artists here, as you do in the Collingwood area.
The highlight of this trip has been observing the children's excitement with the art supplies
and choosing from a selection of your cover art to create their own "little masterpieces".
I look forward to the next issue and will definitely have it...ANYTIME....ANYWHERE.
Thank you....Obrigada
~
Sharon Stewart | Collingwood
For five years, Marc and I have made the long jour-
ney to Jericoacoara, on the northeast coast of
Brazil, for guaranteed daily windsurfing on one of
the ten best beaches in the world. I enjoyed the
beach scene for a few hours, but as a retired
teacher, I wanted to experience time in a foreign
classroom. Children in Brazil only attend classes
from 7 - 11 or 1 - 5 daily. The students are happy
and healthy receiving a good education with stan-
dard provincial guidelines, but no budget or time to
provide arts and crafts. Using charades, a white-
board and very limited Portugese, I managed to in-
troduce my love of crafts to the morning classes from
7 to 11. Without my craft supplies from Canada, I
recycled many materials such as colourful Hava-
iana sandal boxes and purchased a limited supply
of scissors and glue from the small supermarket. A
bag of scissors, boxes of new crayons, paint,
brushes and even a glue gun certainly captured
their attention for an hour of crafts.
Returning the following years, I was well equipped
with supplies donated by friends and groups from the
Collingwood community. Fortunately, all airlines to
Brazil set a 2 bag--70 pound each limit for travellers,
sowe were able to carry 280 pounds. Soccer shoes
were donated by the retired teachers' hockey team,
soccer uniforms fromBeaver Valley Soccer Club, vol-
leyball nets for beach fromCCI andmany hats for the
community to wear in the intense sun.
One Canadian windsurfer wondered about all
the "Collingwood" hats in the community. T-ball
was introduced to the primary school and a
group sent many soccer, basketballs, volley-
balls and tetherballs for the children to use during
their half day off school. Unit 4 Collingwood Re-
tired Teachers had volunteer sessions to make kits
for the classrooms and I would instruct one class
with other teachers conducting similar lessons later.
This October 2013, I arrived with Halloween kits
for mask production and was scheduled to visit a
different classroom a day to provide all students
with masks. I discovered that the classroom num-
bers were increasing in a small classroom and
needed to be giving more individual attention to
each student. The nearby cultural centre gave me
a room, both morning and afternoon, to suit the stu-
dents' timetable. Word soon spread about the jew-
ellery making, foam craft and painting classes, and
this was the beginning of my dream volunteer posi-
tion with young artists.
I will return in October 2014, with a Halloween
party planned for the children at the Cultural Centre
with mask production, centre decorations, games
and prizes. I am excited about continuing art ses-
sions with the youth of the village and will return with
canvases, brushes, sketchbooks and fabric for paint-
ing banners. Fortunately, acrylic paints are now
available for purchase in the next village (one
hour's travel over desert, sand dunes and through
cashew orchards!) for a reasonable price. Any do-
nations or suggestions for this youth program in Jeri-
coacoara would be greatly appreciated for my
return next October 2014.....I will share with you in
photos the smiles of happy, young artists.
~
Sharon Stewart | Collingwood
Photos:
Isabella (age11) painting cover art - Winter 2011
Gabriel (age 10) painting cover art - Summer 2013
escarpment
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reader’s notes
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16
Escarpment Magazine Winter 2014
Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your “Open and Bright” feature in the
Autumn/Winter 2013 issue of Escarpment magazine. Would you please let me know
who the designer was who selected all of the finishes and furnishings. Loved the home!!
~
Renee Richmond
Editor’s reply: Thank you for asking Renee. The Lora Bay Model Home is fabulous and I am genuinely
pleased to share the contact information of this team of talented designers:
REDMAN WATSON INC. Interior Design Consultants, Jo Redman, Registered Interior Designer, Arido,
Anna Watson,
Editor’s reply:
I was moved to tears by Sharon’s heartwrenching
email note and asked her to tell me more about her experiences in
Brazil... please read on...
about our last issue - Fall
2013
