What a great way to spend a Tuesday! HawkMan Studios was invited to participate in the Forever Families – Kids’ Imagination Day, organized by Lilliput Children’s Services in cooperation with Shasta County Adoptions. Imagination Day is an opportunity for children in adoptive families to be in a fun, safe supportive environment with an emphasis on normalizing the fact that many families include adopted children.
Artist Viki Twyman and I helped kids, in groups of the same age peers, explore watercolors, acrylic self-portraits, mono prints and hand-painted frames. Other activities included crafts, drumming with Shasta Lake School teacher, Jennie Morgan, games, group play and a giant water slide.
The goal of Forever Families is to enhance the quality of family life within adoptive homes. Imagination Day is just one of the social activities that Lilliput organizes as part of its package of post-adoption resources. Other post-adoption services include: clinical services, support groups, mentoring, training for relative caregivers, respite care for adoptive parents, training for local therapists on adoption-related issues and crisis intervention to adoptive families.
Imagination day provided 41 kids an opportunity to explore life through art, drama, play and group interaction and use their imaginations to explore their dreams and goals. Viki and I had a great time, but as hard as we tried, we couldn’t please everyone. It was unanimous among the 4 and 5-year olds that drumming was the best part of the day.
To find out how to become an adoptive parent or to learn more about Forever Families, call Lilliput Children’s Services at (530) 722-9092 or visit www.lilliput.org.
Adam Mankoski is a recent North State transplant who feels completely at home here. He enjoys experiencing and writing about the people, places and things that embody the free spirit of the State of Jefferson. He and his partner own HawkMan Studios and are the creators of Redding’s 2nd Saturday ArtHop.
