VVF's Sowing Seeds Goes to the White House

 This blog post is written by Sandy Story, director of the Sowing Seeds education program, a project of the Vail Valley Foundation.

"Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to visit our nation’s capital of Washington D.C. with Chef Kelly Liken of Kelly Liken Restaurant, Rick Colomitz, business partner, General Manager, and Wine Director of Restaurant Kelly Liken, three Eagle County students, and a parent chaperone. After passing through intense security (thrice) we found ourselves waiting outside The First Lady’s Office trying to calm our nerves of excitement while waiting for our host, Sam Kass, personal Chef to President Obama and family, and the newly appointed Director of Healthy Eating Initiative. Sam was the guide on our personal tour of the White House Victory Gardens.  A cool April downpour had just finished and the sun was shining as we walked out onto the South lawn of the White House. 

What a beautiful site! The garden was neatly manicured and straight accompanied by orderly bed plantings of herbs, lettuces, spinach, leeks, and squashes.  Sam went on to explain and direct our attention to the largest raised bed in the garden that is dedicated to the former 3rd President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.  All the vegetables that we saw (Marseilles figs, French artichokes, and purple calabash tomatoes) came from heirloom seeds that had been harvested, collected, and passed down from Mr. Jefferson’s original Monticello garden back in 1809. What a wonderful history lesson to impart to the three Eagle County students that accompanied us on the tour. 

First Lady Michelle Obama, while not able to meet us, wanted us to know that she personally helps plant the Victory Garden each year and visits the garden regularly. 

Along with all the wonderful early spring plantings, the adjacent garden boasts buzzing hand-crafted bee hives, sturdy wooden (and very full) compost bins, and lush blackberry and raspberry bushes. 

Our tour ended with group photos on the lawn of the White House and an invitation posed to Mr. Kass to visit our beautiful state of Colorado to learn more about the Sowing Seeds Project at The Vail Valley Foundation.  He said he will look forward to the visit. 

Springtime in Paris may be everyone’s wish, but springtime in Washington D.C. is truly a wonderful place to be."



-Sandy Story

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Celebrate the Beat Kids Show a Little R-E-S-P-E-C-T

“My friend Signe Jones just called raving about the Brush Creek Celebrate the Beat performance.  Her son, Larson Jones is in the 3rd grade at Brush Creek and she said she and her husband were blown away with the program last night and how awesome it was.  She said it is Lars’ favorite activity at school.”





This is a testament to how successful the arts education program, “Celebrate the Beat,” is in the local Eagle County elementary schools. I had the opportunity to witness the end of the year “Motown” performance at Brush Creek Elementary School last week and it was truly inspiring. The children’s faces expressed excitement, focus, and confidence as they danced in front of approximately 150 spectators to all the greatest Motown hits. With a tribute to Aretha Franklin as a finale, all 100+ dancers took their places to follow the lead of their enthusiastic Teaching Artist, Colleen Macomber, and dance in sync to the song Respect. This song embodies the lessons these children learn while participating in “Celebrate the Beat” and each and every child gains so much more than just the art of dance.
-Lindsey

The Summer 2011 Pop Hop program registration forms can be downloaded here

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Lil' Buck and Yo-Yo Ma Inspire Kids During “Arts Strike” Organized by VIDF Artistic Director Damian Woetzel

Last week, Vail International Dance Festival Artistic Director Damian Woetzel invited world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Memphis Jooker Charles “Lil Buck” Riley, and Yo-Yo Ma’s The Silk Road Ensemble to teach and perform for more than a hundred elementary school students from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Woetzel called the event an “arts strike,” an opportunity for great performers to share their passion for the arts directly with kids. In the heart of Skid Row—one of Los Angeles' most impoverished neighborhoods—Yo-Yo Ma performed Camille Saints-Saëns’ score as students squealed with delight upon seeing Charles “Lil Buck” Riley’s jaw-dropping interpretation of “The Dying Swan.”

It’s hard to decide what's more inspiring: the way these world-class artists are deeply committed to reaching out and inspiring young people through high-quality arts education; or the overwhelming enthusiasm with which the kids responded to Yo-Yo Ma’s heartbreaking music, Damian Woetzel’s coaching of George Balanchine’s classic Serenade, and Charles “Lil Buck” Riley’s scintillating footwork.

Here is an article on the arts strike at Inner City Arts in Los Angeles. Be sure to watch the accompanying video, which includes clips of Charles “Lil Buck” Riley performing to The Silk Road Ensemble's arrangement of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." Lil Buck is the 2011 Vail International Dance Festival’s Artist-In-Residence, and he will perform in UpClose: Premieres, Dance for $20.11, and Dance TV. Established choreographers and writers refer to this twenty-two year old Jooker as the "dance prodigy" or "genius," and, based on the enthusiastic response he received at last week's arts strike, we can look forward to many great things from him in Vail this summer.

Tickets for the 2011 Vail International Dance Festival are now on sale at www.vaildance.org.

—Caitlin

Lil' Buck rehearses for the arts strike at Inner-City Arts in downtown LA, with Silk Road Ensemble musicians Cristina Pato on galician bagpipes and cellist Mike Block.

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VVF Takeaways from SXSW Interactive 2011

Imagine an arena of skinny jeans, Converse sneakers, and Ray-Bans. Now add a million iPads and mobile devices. Combine that with cutting edge technology displays, industry leaders under the age of 30, and the world's Mecca of interactive geeks and you have the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference in Austin, TX.

This past month, I ventured to Austin on behalf of the Vail Valley Foundation to gather insight as to how to use emerging technology to the best of our ability for our community. I was interested just to catch a glimpse of the next decade from some of the brightest thought leaders and start-ups in the industry, as well as network with other non-profits and learn from their campaigns. While at times overwhelming with the amount of content (and streaming live tweets!), it was a solid growing experience and I walked away with a few key takeaways.

SXSW in bullet form:

• Technology is getting (even) smarter - this means it knows where you are, when you got there, and who's there with you. The next phase of web-based applications will coordinate this data seamlessly to provide you with relevant information, tailored to your needs (I'll be honest, this freaks me out!)
• Social media has become de-humanized, full of spam and irrelevant content that clutters our brains and wastes time. If we use it for conversation and to say thank you when appropriate, it serves a better purpose.
• Facebook, Twitter, etc. for non-profits are most meaningful when used to tell stories - whether that be through pictures, contests, discussions - to help give an inside look to the organization and empower our community.
• "Game mechanics"  was one of the most talked-about phrases at the conference, referring to the ability to gather people around incentive-driven campaigns (do you use Foursquare and win badges at different locations?)
• Location-based services are the biggest mover and shaker in the industry, using QR codes to scan in to events or receive recommendations from friends in the area from your phone. We hope to make our events easier to share with friends through these services.

While this information may not be relevant to you, I'm writing just to say that for the Vail Valley Foundation, this information will help us better serve the community in a way that is innovative and consistent with our digital age. Our mission to enhance and sustain the spirit of the Vail Valley allows us to be leading in this front and hopefully connecting with you in new and better ways. After all, the underlying theme of emerging media is a desire for sharing, communication, and connection - which is just what the VVF is all about.
-Melissa 

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