Bringing a Store Front to Fruition?

 Store Front on Celebrate Life?

What store front and why?
Well, to really start at the beginning of this development we have to go back a few months. Earlier this year, 2019, a few of the Celebrate Life team members (myself included) held a meeting at a local school to help brainstorm an affordable and do-able program for a specific group of students on that campus. Many of the students in this group come from either low income, migrant families or identify as persons of color and most of them have never experienced -- or let alone heard of-- this thing called "kayaking." 

---

ith the ability to relate to some degree to these students-- I identify as a minority, a person of color, and a child of 2 migrant families-- during this meeting I went back to my younger self that was a high school student and who never went to a ropes course or even knew what kayaking was. Though I can admit that in many ways I have several advantages over some or most of these students, I too could place myself in that situation of being curious and wished I too could have had these opportunities as a student. 

Why is this important to note? 
This is important because it was the catalyst for this grand idea to open a store front, which we have just launched. A lot of schools face problems having enough funding to take students out of the classroom to see something new, learn a new skill, get to know their peers outside the class in a safe or positive environment or to even just unwind a little bit-- which to us is very important in this current day and age of fast paced technology.

​With this in mind, you can imagine how an experience like Adventures in Learning (whether through kayaking, a ropes course day or coastal environment day) would help refresh students in more ways than one. Many of these students would be having their first day out on the water in the harbor or jumping to face their fears on a challenging ropes course adventure. 

Fundraising or Fun-Raising?
At this point you're probably wondering what we plan to do with this store front or what does it have anything to do with students or the Adventures in Learning programs. I'm here to answer that question. We decided that we wanted to provide more opportunities for more student groups to participate in our activities.
​
With the ongoing cuts in our local schools' budgets, many students won't have the opportunity to even consider participating in a fun outdoor program and we couldn't just let that continue happening. The decision, therefore, was easy to make. We decided to sell fun and positive pieces to our supporters and anyone else willing to support this idea of Fun-Raising (aka fundraising.) 

The proceeds of these sales are all to be directed towards a fund dedicated for groups who may need financial assistance affording their own Adventures in Learning program and to fund professional developmental trainings for our staff. Our programs would not be possible without the great work that our facilitators do, so we aim to help fund their growth as well.  

For our first launch, like aforementioned, we wanted to create pieces that would be fun, bright and positive. With this in mind, our designs (all made by our team btw) were selected to go on bright blue tops with the motto "unplug, connect, co-create." Celebrate Life believes it's important to unplug from the technological world in order to connect to those around you in order to co-create a place that we all want to be living in. We are not asking you to ban technology from your life as that may be hard to do for several reasons. For one, even I'm taking the time to type this up on my MacBook in order to share with you what this launch means to us and why we decided to drop this collection. Rather, our aim is to have you take the time to disconnect from the technological world and step outside the walls of comfort that your smartphone or other devices offer you in order to experience something new.  

---

Will you join us?
This launch is near and dear to us so we want to ask, will you join us?
Joining us means that you will purchase a piece,  you will share this with your friends or that you will at least take the time to appreciate the time and effort that went into this project. This launch was made possible by many people who worked hard to put it all together so your support means a lot.

Future plans?
Our storefront currently offers more than just tops, we also offers art prints and many of these items will be in constant rotation so you won't want to miss out on this first launch or any thereafter. And before we forget, we want to take this moment to thank Oceanna Talbot for donating some of her works to our fundraising efforts. Our art print products would not be possible without her. 

Please feel free to lurk our store front and snatch some pieces before they're gone. And don't forget to follow our social media accounts to stay updated on new releases, new items and other things Celebrate Life! 

Store

Author: Veralice

When not assisting Celebrate Life, she likes to edit photos, edit video, create journal spreads, and learn choreography. ​