Kids with no inhibitions could potentially cause stress for the adults who are working with them. But when you see a child walk up to an elderly person in a wheelchair and throw their arms wide open for a hug, you have to smile and love the impulsive action.

Today 58 elementary and middle school kids took their Saturday to serve others. Meeting at Highland Park Community Outreach, Urban Arts hosted the fall service project along with Kids that Rock from Kensington Church.  Splitting into three groups, the kids rotated to an outdoor paint activity, an indoor craft project and a music class.  Once the projects were completed, we loaded up and drove over to the Highland Park Nursing Home where the kids sang three songs and presented the crafts they made to the residents of the home.

Jesus was present and the children's love was abounding!

Hi Friends,
In two months, Urban Arts will be running our fourth year of summer camps in Detroit! We are so blessed to be able to continue this ministry and are only able to do so with the Lord's help, your generous gifts and much needed prayers. :)

Summer camps will run for four weeks this year. We will be partnering with City Mission, Central Detroit Christian, and Highland Park Community Outreach. If you live in the metro Detroit area and are interested in helping during the summer please contact us! The dates for the camps are as follows:

June 27-July 1
July 5-9
July 11-15
July 18-22

Also, included below is a list of items that we need for our camps. Most are food items and craft supplies. If you would like to donate and item please contact us here. Gift cards and cash donations are also helpful as we purchase these supplies.

Supply Needs
1. Performance Dinner @ City Mission
______ taco shells
______ 3 large salsas
______ 2 large boxes tortilla chips..2bags in each box (found at Sam’s Club or Costco. OR large bags from the grocery store.
______ 10 pounds shredded cheese
______ 2 cans of Nacho Sauce (found at SAMS or Gordon’s Food Service)
______3 large sour creams
______ 2 large bags of shredded lettuce (GFS, Sam’s, Costco)
______ Box of tomatoes
______ 10 envelopes of taco seasoning
______ 4 large containers of lemonade mix
______ 3 containers PRE-made brownies (Sam’s/Costco/GFS)
______ 150 9oz. cups
______ 150 plasticware
______ 150 dinner plates
______ 150 bowls
______ dessert plates
______ napkins
______ 6 large aluminum foil pans
______ 6 medium aluminum foil pans
______ 35 pounds meat (or money donated to purchase it)
______ 250-300 individually wrapped ice cream bars
______ 2 large drink containers/dispensers
2. Craft Supplies
_____ 40 bags of polyfill pillow stuffing
_____ 100 pack blank CD’Rs
_____ Glue sticks
3. Snacks/Lunches
______600 granola bars
______ 200-400 Go-gurts
______ 200-400 freeze pops
______ 200-400 fruit snacks
______ 200-400 cheese sticks
______ mac & cheese for 100
______ spaghetti noodles for 100
______ spaghetti sauce for 100
______ hot dogs for 100
______ hot dog buns for 100
______ ranch dressing
______ mustard/ketchup
______oranges/apples
______lemonade or koolaid mix

Please pray for the 200+ kids we will be ministering to this summer! Our theme is "Make Your Mark". We pray that these youth will be trained to live like Jesus and serve Him to "make their mark" on the world they live in.

Grace&Peace,
Katie Beth Hostetter
Director, Urban Art Outreach
www.urbanartoutreach.com

How do you teach youth to serve others? Is it something that comes naturally--putting other people before yourself? Most would laugh and say 'No way!'.  So how to we come by this selfless action and attitude? By knowing Christ. Urban Art volunteers do their best to model a servant's attitude for the youth to see.  Serving is showing others' Christ's unselfish love. What better way to teach youth to serve than to give them the opportunity. 

Saturday was the second "Service Project" day for UA students at HPCO. We partnered with Kids that Rock, a performing arts program from Kensington Community Church.  The children arrived in the morning ready to work! They split into groups and worked on making St. Patrick Day table decorations for the Highland Park Nursing Home as well as practiced several songs they would perform for the residents of the nursing home.   

After lunch, everyone loaded up and caravan-ed to the nursing home. For some kids it was a stretch to walk into such a different environment: seeing elderly people in wheelchairs, smelling different smells, watching nurses take care of individuals who needed extra TLC. But each child who walked into the building knew why they were there and what they needed to do. Share the love of Christ. With each song that was sung and each table decoration that was made with the residents the smiles on the faces of the kids got bigger and bigger. They enjoyed spending their entire Saturday serving others. This is only the beginning of their young lives and we pray that their heart of service will continue to grow as large as the smiles on their faces when they left at the end of the day.

We are so thankful for individuals and small groups who take time to make dinners and goodies for the Urban Art students on Monday evenings. This night, a small group from KCC, made sloppy joes, fruit jello, corn and provided drinks and paper products. Thanks you guys!! It was yummie;)

Monday night was a beautiful, crisp evening downtown. We took the HPCO kids on a "mystery trip" to go ice skating at Campus Martius. The parents were notified and as the kids were piling in the car the excitement was high! Several of the kids had to be told to go back in the house and get warmer clothes on and after that we were bombarded with questions about where and what we were going to be doing.

After serving the kids dinner at HPCO, we drove down Woodward to the outdoor ice skating rink. As the kids were putting on the rented ice skates, two of the boys came up to another leader and I and their face looked so sad. They informed us that they weren't wearing socks. It was winter. I was amazed. Thankfully, I was wearing two pair and the other leader handed hers over to the boys.

 When we got to the ice, I realized that the majority of the kids had never been ice skating before. Some took it slowly, while others jumped right in and enjoyed the slips and falls. I was the most proud of a young boy named Cameron. He was terrified of skating. Just to get in the van to go was a HUGE step for him. Once he got his skates on and stepped onto the ice he began crying. I skated over to him, by that time he was about 1/3 of the way around the rink. As he clutched the railing and took precarious steps with his ice skates we began to pray. Cameron began to calm down and he made it all the way around the rink.  He quickly exited and found a bench near by. I was a little disappointed that he didn't want to give it another try, but I knew he had been terrified. About 15 minutes later, I looked over at the bench and Cameron was gone. The last place I scanned with my eyes was the rink but when I did I saw him clinging to the wall giving it another go. All by himself. I was so proud.  He is learning to trust and conquer his fears.

 By the end of the night, none of the kids wanted to leave. :) I can't wait until they tear up the ice next winter!

How do you teach youth to serve others? Is it something that comes naturally--putting other people before yourself? Most would laugh and say 'No way!'.  So how to we come by this selfless action and attitude? By knowing Christ. Urban Art volunteers do their best to model a servant's attitude for the youth to see.  Serving is showing others' Christ's unselfish love. What better way to teach youth to serve than to give them the opportunity. 

Saturday was the second "Service Project" day for UA students at HPCO. We partnered with Kids that Rock, a performing arts program from Kensington Community Church.  The children arrived in the morning ready to work! They split into groups and worked on making St. Patrick Day table decorations for the Highland Park Nursing Home as well as practiced several songs they would perform for the residents of the nursing home.   

After lunch, everyone loaded up and caravan-ed to the nursing home. For some kids it was a stretch to walk into such a different environment: seeing elderly people in wheelchairs, smelling different smells, watching nurses take care of individuals who needed extra TLC. But each child who walked into the building knew why they were there and what they needed to do. Share the love of Christ. With each song that was sung and each table decoration that was made with the residents the smiles on the faces of the kids got bigger and bigger. They enjoyed spending their entire Saturday serving others. This is only the beginning of their young lives and we pray that their heart of service will continue to grow as large as the smiles on their faces when they left at the end of the day.

We are so thankful for individuals and small groups who take time to make dinners and goodies for the Urban Art students on Monday evenings. This night, a small group from KCC, made sloppy joes, fruit jello, corn and provided drinks and paper products. Thanks you guys!! It was yummie;)

Monday night was a beautiful, crisp evening downtown. We took the HPCO kids on a "mystery trip" to go ice skating at Campus Martius. The parents were notified and as the kids were piling in the car the excitement was high! Several of the kids had to be told to go back in the house and get warmer clothes on and after that we were bombarded with questions about where and what we were going to be doing.

After serving the kids dinner at HPCO, we drove down Woodward to the outdoor ice skating rink. As the kids were putting on the rented ice skates, two of the boys came up to another leader and I and their face looked so sad. They informed us that they weren't wearing socks. It was winter. I was amazed. Thankfully, I was wearing two pair and the other leader handed hers over to the boys.

 When we got to the ice, I realized that the majority of the kids had never been ice skating before. Some took it slowly, while others jumped right in and enjoyed the slips and falls. I was the most proud of a young boy named Cameron. He was terrified of skating. Just to get in the van to go was a HUGE step for him. Once he got his skates on and stepped onto the ice he began crying. I skated over to him, by that time he was about 1/3 of the way around the rink. As he clutched the railing and took precarious steps with his ice skates we began to pray. Cameron began to calm down and he made it all the way around the rink.  He quickly exited and found a bench near by. I was a little disappointed that he didn't want to give it another try, but I knew he had been terrified. About 15 minutes later, I looked over at the bench and Cameron was gone. The last place I scanned with my eyes was the rink but when I did I saw him clinging to the wall giving it another go. All by himself. I was so proud.  He is learning to trust and conquer his fears.

 By the end of the night, none of the kids wanted to leave. :) I can't wait until they tear up the ice next winter!

Take a big breath.....now let it out slowly. The third summer of Urban Art camps has just come to a close.  We are ALL smiling! Here's a little recap and some memories for those of you who weren't able to make it.

 We had some "firsts" for our camp this year that we are thrilled to share!

• We raised enough money to purchase our own portable sound system!
•  A family donated their time and food to cook hot lunches for several of the camp days. (this was a nice change from brown bag lunches)
• A missions team of 13 people came from a Christian school in Maryland to help with a week of camp.
• A puppet theater was built to use for camp this summer.
• We had a summer intern, Brandon, who helped at three of the camp weeks in the dance department and in other areas.  He is a local high school student who lives in Detroit and had attended UA camps the past two summers.

Week 1: 39 elementary students from City Mission camp to camp the first week. We had a missions team from Grace Brethren Christian School in Maryland come out for the week and work with us.  It was the first time we had a missions team come to assist us and between you and me, this is the way we need to do it from now on!:)  The team did a great job during the day with the kids and came back in the evening with enough energy to help prep for the upcoming camp weeks.  We were excited for the kids to be able to perform at the church next door to City Mission.  The building was given to CM and they have now started a church, City Covenant Church!  Another highlight from the week--the kids wrote and performed original puppet shows based on the fruit of the Spirit.  (they also made their puppets!)  The week ended with our traditional taco dinner for the families.  This year, we ran out of seats! But God was good and we never ran out of any food!

Week 2: We stayed at City Mission for our second week and worked with the middle and high school students.  Although this was a smaller group, due to summer school requirements, we loved the creativity from these kids! This group of campers excel in the art and drama classes. They were split into two groups, guys and girls, and rotated to the different classes.  When they went to drama class each group came up with an original drama based on a moral and Scripture--patience and self-control.  The two dramas were performed on the final evening and they were a big hit!

Week 3: This was the HOTTEST week in the summer and we sweated it out (literally) on the second and third floor of a building with no air with our middle schoolers from Central Detroit Christian.  I was really impressed at how well behaved the kids were this week! (maybe the heat took it out of them:)  They focused on art, music and dance during the week and gave a wonderful performance on Friday afternoon! We've got some talent in this group!

Week 4: Highland Park Community Outreach let us take their kids for a week of camp and we had a blast! Some of our classes were held outside and we were a little nervous due to the forecast, but we dodged the "rainy" forecast every single day! The kids put all of their energy into their work and pumped out a great outdoor performance on Friday afternoon.  We were very pleased at the turn out of parents too!

All in all, it was a great 2010 Summer Camp season!

Even though the summer camps are over, we are looking ahead to the fall for our programs and even starting to talk about next summer! It's never too early to start planning! If you'd like to be part of the process let us know!

Today is a day that has been a long time in coming! HELP-PORTRAIT, started by Jeremy Cowert, has inspired thousands of creative individuals to pool their talent and give back.  A few months ago I learned about H-P through twitter and began searching for photographers and volunteers who would be willing to help.  You can see my previous post here. Well,  it all came together.  The only disappointment: I have been fighting the flu and couldn't get out of bed today. So, everyone rallied and i'm getting text updates and know that it's going great! Today we are shooting family portraits at City Mission for over 20 families! We have 3 photographers, a photo editor on site and some great assistants.  More pictures and a video to come soon!

As we start week four of Urban Arts summer camp, I am amazed to see the results of the past three weeks. 

Week 1 brought joy and sorrow as the middle and high schoolers of Brightmoor turned their energy to learning and loving the arts.  For some, it was a struggle and I could see they just weren't sure about being in the program, but they hung in there to the very end.  For others, they shone like stars in the midnight sky as they stood on stage beaming with smiles so bright you knew they were having the time of their life.  Both groups of students grew to become better individuals not only in the performing and visual arts, but in their character and person as a whole.

Week 2 was refreshing as we worked with elementary students who have a passion for life.  It was wonderful to see the interaction of inner city and suburban kids as they learned together, played together, ate together and loved together throughout the week.  Even with the stomach bug that unfortunately caught a camper every day during the week, the kids did not get discouraged!  Attitudes were positive and spirits were lifted up!

Week 3 was a new location, a new partnership and a new group of middle schoolers.  In of the eyes of the 36 students I saw hope, love, hurt, fear, discouragement, need, anger, kindness and many more feelings that seemed beyond the age of these kids.  But as the team arrived each day, eager to minister to the kids, we saw some of the painful layers peel away slowly.  A hug was given, a smile was bigger, a wall was broken down in the lives of some youth last week.  That's all we can hope and pray for.

As this new week begins and we are past the half way point for camps this summer.  I am encouraged and surprisingly refreshed.  I look forward to two more amazing weeks with amazing kids!