Marya Mann : Blog : THANK YOU = MC2

THANK YOU = MC2

WARM ALOHA TO FEED THE CHILDREN DONORS & VOLUNTEERS!

What a stellar time — we swallowed the sun!

Mahalo to you for caring about and contributing to Feed the Children’s Summer campaign. You helped to create a significant milestone in the lives of home-free children, who ate well, relaxed and played while learning to find peace in their hearts, practice yoga, singing, dancing and painting this July at the Summer Homeless Keiki Edu-Camp operated by Project Hawaii in Honoka’a.

You also helped to manifest more one-of-a-kind Good Luck Banners to Banish Childhood Hunger, an ongoing art project to create awareness about the keiki who experience hunger. Creating beauty out of struggle is what this project is about. Thank you so much for believing that a committed group of adults can evolve the world for the better, one breath, one banner, one conversation, one dance and one meal at a time. When courage, genius, and generosity hold hands, all things are possible.

It began with Susun Gallery last month helping to build the art frame for making more silk banners and Dr. Koakane Green refitting the bolt holes for easy set-up and break-down. Pono Stadler drew wonderful designs on the silks, including a singular Project Hawaii Summer Edu-Camp Banner 2014 that will stay in Oahu at their headquarters to bring good luck to all the children in need of our love.

Special thanks go to the Dream Team living in West Hawaii that begins with Mary Garris and the Unitarian Universalist Church volunteers who cut and prepared fresh fruit, greens, stir-fry vegetables, lasagna and more to make 200 delicious meals for the keiki.

Toni Vaughn contributed her beautiful heart and van to carry the meals to Honoka’a where youth were brought from Ka’u, Puna and Hamakua to participate. During the long summer, without school lunches, these children often go to bed hungry for weeks at a time.

Pono and I traveled with Toni in the van on Wednesday, at approximately the same time Robin and Nicole Picarda, the yogis from Maui, were being picked up at the airport by Ms. Sanity Claus herself, Sharman O’Shea, who with Mr. Santa Claus appeared at the Kona Feed the Children Christmas Keiki Feast last year.

Upon arrival at camp, we were met by the welcoming arms of the children. We gathered the colorful yoga mats donated by Wailana, bless her big heart! Please support her at wailana.com) and spread the mats in a circle. I taught a group yoga class to a dozen 3 – 8 year-olds, whose energy was expansive and giggly. The keiki placed their little hands on their own hearts and felt their breath, and then came with me on a search through an imaginary jungle to find their inner sun and other suns just like them. We discovered the sun in the forms all around us and in each other. We breathed in and swallowed the sun, and then bowed to the sun in trees like the palm and mango, in the cat, cow, snake, eagle, beetle and dolphin, in flowers, in fragrances, and in everything we could see and feel and taste. We moved as these life forms because everything contains prana, the life force, and respecting the essence of life in every form unites us, informs us and regenerates us. We made a human wheel with wrists touching to remember the pulse of life that that gives rhythm and movement to us all.

Afterward, the kids painted silk banners with Pono and learned three new songs – “Home is Where the Heart Is,” “We Are the Flow,” and “Leela Leela.” Nicole taught a beautiful rendition of the Macarena and the keiki learned a circle hula dance full of Alohaha and delight. Brain-balancing movements that prepare the children for successful learning blended into the choreography, and they created movements that reflected their sweet blossoming souls. Cliff and the volunteers found their groove to the drumming of keiki, the voices of the children and the encouragement of the keiki.

At the end, the children performed their song and dance story for Magin, Polly, Sharman, Cassie and other volunteers. Pono presented banner-painted hearts to each of the keiki and the large Hawaii Edu-Camp 2014 Banner to Magin and Cliff for Project Hawaii. Bravo to everyone for making it the best camp ever! It was a stellar time. The children received nutritious food, towels, teamwork, new songs they will remember and hum forever and ways to paint their own reality through silk painting the banners. In so many ways, we swallowed the sun and the world is brighter because of it.

We at Feed the Children in Kona have been working together as a group of committed adults on solutions for the problems of poverty, homelessness and hungry kids for a year and a half. Yet individually, our small, grassroots organization has collectively more than 100 years experience in helping to put families in homes, feed the children, offer non-violent solutions to society’s problems, and bring the living and fine arts into the lives of all people. In addition to the potency of good nutrition, we believe yoga, dance, music, painting and story-telling can empower children and families with essential life skills, stress management tools and discipline, as well as self-reliance. Skills building is essential in preventing the slide back into poverty and the arts offer a foundation for health, resilience and innovation.

We primarily focus on the children, providing them with food during holidays, tutors, tools and the emotional and social support they need to succeed. Over the years, we have seen children and teens restore their dignity and self-esteem. We have watched families come back into harmony after years of conflict. We empower the vulnerable to become strong through good nutrition, stress management, the living arts and skillful wise action.

Congratulations to all those who serve the children and make a positive difference in the lives of others!

Many Big Blessings,
Marya for Feed the Children