July 2018, Paint Fest at the Provo Children's Home

The 2nd time was also a charm! Paint Fest came back to the Provo Children's Home. Dick and Sue again travelled to Providenciales and spent countless hours preparing the canvases, paints and other supplies to give the children and carers in PCH a wonderful experience.

PaintFest (as we call it) has sprung from the brainchild of the Foundation for Hospital Art which sought to give relief and joy to patients and staff in an 'instututional facility' that can sometimes have aan environment that is 'less than a home setting'. We also strive to minimize this unintentional effect, and to make PCH as much as a home environment as possible. After the first Paint Fest we saw the pride of the children seeing their 'own' paintings decorate the hallways, the children were happy to engage and speak to visitors about the experience.

Carers and children alike spent a day laughing and painting, a few of the volunteers helped also! A special thanks to Top O' the Cove Deli for treats for all! And thanks to Angela herself for adding her 'special' touch to one of the paintings!

Many of the children who were at PCH during the first Paint Fest have tranistioned into new home environments. This is a new generation of children who challenged themselves, engaged in a new creative outlet, and met new volunteers from outside the Turks & Caicos Islands. Our goal this time was to have a new picture for every child's room. The pride the children feel is immeasurable, and the memories of working with all the adults (carers & volunteers alike) strengthens the existing bond.

Dick and Sue, and volunteers worked with the children all day, and then afterwards collected the works of art, and 'finished' them by taking a special thick black felt tip pen and re'drew the outline of the images to improve any 'accidental' drawing over the lines. As with every event, most of the work happens 'before' & 'after so we are very grateful for all the effort that went into making this event a success.

We at PCH are grateful for their time and passing on their unique skills. We continue to move forward to our goal of creating a rich, cultural, artistic and educational based environment. PCH is a transitional home, which means we don't always have a lot of time to make a positive impact in a child's life. All our Carers are educationally based, and projects like this while fun, and destined for success are also very challenging for every age group in the home. Volunteers and projects of this nature are the key to unlocking the potential and hope in any child. Thank you