Okay. Where to start?
About 8 months ago, we had someone come in and clean out our storage room for us. Let me just say, I was only at this job for not even 2 months and so I had NO idea what we had in this storage room. But she throws away old crafts, garbage supplies that were broken etc. She sorts through all of our stuff and even uses a label maker to organize. Like this is crafter/art buff heaven.
She finally pulls out this heavy, old side table. Not a nice one you might find in a doctor's office or waiting room somewhere. No, this bad boy is something you'd find at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Being the packrat that I am, I refused to let her throw a perfectly good end table.
"I'm sure we can do something with it. Let me think about it!" <-- My tag line for anything that anyone ever wants to get rid of.
So here I am with a massive end table... So I took to Pinterest. I found a few options for this piece of furniture but the question is how do I pitch it to my clients?
So I pull a few of the men aside (Note: I was not being sexist in any way, but the men at program expressed enjoyment in woodworking and hand projects versus the women taking more to the crafts and knitting programs...just the generation I work with).
The men decide we should make a kitchen because "Oh some little kid would love a little kitchen..you could make little meals" -Client
So we start with sanding it down to its bare bones. Now this table wasn't ugly. So we got a few remarks of protest from some of the clients "How dare you ruin such a beautiful table!" (Learning curve: always have a print out of the end goal; as soon as I showed them what it was going to be, the protests of table massacre stopped)
After it was sanded down, we painted it with some indoor wall paint that was leftover from recent renovations. And now the ladies wanted to get involved.
Total clients that have worked on the project to this point: 9
Okay, so it's painted but how are we going to make it something beautiful? We don't really have a big budget for Rec supplies, so we can't just go buy a kitchen faucet or sink...
So I turn to Facebook and Kijiji. I create a post looking for kitchen taps and I explain what it's for and why I need it for free or for less than $5. And sure enough, within minutes someone is sending me information to pick up a brand new tap set for free!!
After we got the taps and the bowl we would use as a sink installed by maintenance, it was all uphill from there. We added the backsplash with the help of our PSW student and a few clients, we painted some burners, added some knitted wash clothes (courtesy of our lovely knitting group and a spouses donation)
Total clients that have worked on the project to this point: 13 + 1 spouse + 2 students
Now our table is done. It took us close to 6 months from start to finish. But it's beautiful.
The benefits outway the hassle 10000X.
We are now $35 in supplies the rest had been donated and we are raffling tickets off within our staff and family group to raise money for our Christmas parties.
I am so proud of the clients that worked on this project. The light in their eyes as they sat on Friday selling tickets and talking to families and staff about all their hard work and how proud they were of their group for making it. It just melts my heart.
So quick and dirty, I'll go over the benefits of this project for the TR brains out there.
This project promoted the social domain through teamwork, cooperation, and group planning. It benefitted the cognitive domain through concept creation, finding 'non-traditional' items (plates as burners, bath plugs as knobs etc.). We used this piece as a focal point for many discussion groups, drawing on the emotional reminiscing of building their kids toys, playing in the kitchen with their parents or with their kids, working on a project with their buddies and even how donations and hard work can impact someone/something else for the positive. The physical domain by standing or sitting and sanding the pieces/table, stretching back and forth to paint, fine motor skills to help attach small pieces and so on. We hit almost all of the 5 RT focused domains. And I'm sure we did more than what I explained.
We brought meaning into a craft/project. We didn't just paint a canvas the same as everyone else to take home and put it up on our mantel. We didn't sit in a group of 5-10 clients and make snowflakes to hang from the ceiling just to throw away in a week. We spent countless hours working on 1 project from start to finish that will be used and loved by a child or children somewhere. It brought purpose into our Craft Club.
This has turned into a super long post, so I will wrap it up there. If you are looking for a more detailed program outline to run a program similar to this, please send us an email and I can whip something up not a problem! If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please comment below! It takes 2 seconds to sign up and comment but means the world to me! Any positive feedback will be going directly to my clients to show them the impact they have made!
I can't wait for our next big project.
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