Last Friday the Museum wrapped up it’s Crafts in the Park event that it teams up with the Whistler Library for. The event has been running for three years now. Every year we are given a different theme to base all the crafts off of and this year’s was “How do you connect to Whistler”.
This year we ran it for a total of seven weeks and included a different craft every week. Week one had the kids making foam bear masks because nature and especially the bears are very important to Whistler. Week two was a special week because the Museum teamed up with the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre to talk about the importance of the Indigenous history of the area as well as make cedar rope bracelets. Week three was a cardboard tube train engine because one of the first ways to efficiently get into Whistler was by railway. Week four we talked about the Olympics because they were so important for the development of Whistler into what it is today, so the kids made clothespin skiers. The following weeks the kids made screen printed t-shirts from scratch, a pipe cleaner mountain bike and bridge as well as a mini version of the Peak to Peak.
The Museum had a lot of success with each week and kids really enjoyed themselves each time. Kids were able to be really creative and we saw a lot of great crafts from the kids every week. Each week varied in attendance but on average we had between 20 and 30 children show up each week and had a lot of fun meeting and hanging out with everyone.
Each week our summer student Michaela would start off the event with a bit of history as to why each craft was chosen and how they related to Whistler and then Kristina from the Library would read a book to the kids after which everyone would participate in the craft together. Sometimes our helpers would even participate along with the children so everyone involved had lots of fun. We even had a couple of kids who consistently came every single week!
This event was a lot of fun for everyone involved, the people who made it possible by helping out, the parents of the kids who came, and of course the kids themselves. The Museum loves putting this event on every year and we cannot wait to do this again and again because we have received a lot of praise from parents grateful to have something artistic for their children to participate in and making something that brings kids and the community together. The children loved getting to make different things with their friends and the help of their family.