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The Adopt-A-Pier Initiative
Recently, there has been some debate in the Vermilion Parish Police Jury over the fates of four thirty-year old fishing piers located along LA HWY 82 between Forked Island and Freshwater City. These piers had remained for many years the notoriously hard to manage dumping sites of unscrupulous passersby and careless users of these public areas, and were beginning to show their age. A motion had been passed in early April that would have seen the destruction and removal of these important ties to our local heritage and way of life. Residents such as Mr. Milton Mitchell had previously vangaurded the grass roots efforts to keep the piers open, but it seemed to no avail.
We became aware of the plight of these important areas on Thursday, April 11th, 2013 after reading an article in Vermilion Today which stated the Parish was one step closer to simply removing the piers. On April 15th, at a regular meeting of the Vermilion Parish Police Jury, Gimnick Enterprises Director of Public Relations, Sheila James presented an initial proposal outlining the Adopt-A-Pier concept and spoke to the Jurors about the negative impacts of removing the piers and the economic and cultural benefits of safeguarding these public areas. Following Sheila's presentation, Mr. Mitchell spoke before the Jurors in support of the Adopt-A-Pier initiative. After these presentations, the Police Jury rescinded their previous motion to remove the fishing piers.
The following Saturday, as a show of good faith to the Police Jury, representatives of Gimnick Enterprises, BKT Designs (Erath, LA), and several members of the Mitchell family devoted several hours to the removal and proper disposal of all the trash around and on all four piers, taking before and after pictures to illustrate the scope of the effort. After the clean up effort (an event put together by Sheila James called Trash Bash), we documented our findings, which were then passed on to the Public Works committee meeting held April 24th, along with copies of the photos taken by Bridget Tally (BKT Designs) and more copies of the initial proposal. A motion was made and carried to review the information with their Legal Services department and consider implementation of the Adopt-A-Pier program, contingent upon approval of a draft contract administratively outlining the parameters of the program.
Sheila James presented this draft to the Vermilion Parish Police Jury at the May 6th regular meeting. As of this date, both Vermilion Today and KATC TV3 (Lafayette, LA television station) are following the story and the progress of the Adopt-A-Pier program.
You can request copies of both the initial proposal and the contract draft by emailing us: info@gimnickenterprises.org
Impossible Fantasy Studio announces the launch of
THE HEALING ARTS PROJECT!
Impossible
Fantasy Studio is proud to introduce The Healing Arts Project, an
initiative bringing the healing power of involvement in the arts to the
lives of people who could desperately use a little grace in their daily
realities. In the future, this project is intended to reach out to
cancer wards, burn units, teen crisis centers, and many other places of
need. For now, however, our introductory focus will be on woman and
children in crisis and victims of domestic violence and other forms of
abuse.
What The Healing Arts Project is:
An
ongoing initiative, perpetual in scope, to implement programs in
multiple locations and in varied forms that will provide an opportunity
for those in crisis to discover the healing power of the myriad art
forms and use that personal healing to the maximum benefit in either
resolving their respective situations or developing for themselves the
internal tools to face their situations with a new perspective that
makes maintaining hope and removing feelings of helplessness possible.
It
is our belief that the focus and creative processes contained in the
act of creation have very real and direct benefits to the artist that
can translate into personal growth and development that will, in turn,
provide a groundwork of strength and accomplishment the participant can
then use to fuel positive responses to their individual situations.
To
accomplish this, IFS will undertake two applications of this project to
provide an opportunity for this healing without the red tape and
bureaucratic hindrances traditionally associated with similar projects
administrated through agencies, which must answer to a board of
directors and spend months mired in processes before anyone can even
begin to benefit.
What The Healing Arts Project is not:
This
project is not intended to be construed as a structured, guided therapy
regimen nor provide any type of counseling service. The benefits of
this project will be generated within the individual as they
participate: our goal is to provide them the maximum opportunity to
heal, not tell them how they should be benefiting or what to do with the
strength, patience, clarity, peace, hope, or growth they may or may not
develop through their participation.
This is not an art
instruction course. Various media and the applicable techniques will be
discussed in brief, but the individual participant will have the
liberating advantage of choosing their own subject matters, styles, and
ranges of emotional and creative expression.
The Healing
Arts Project is not affiliated with any agency, and as such is not
susceptible to outside influences, constraints, schedules, or limited in
its availability to a single entity or classification of entities. Full
administrative control rests with the originators of the project; any
agency or entity that wishes to participate in this project must be
willing to accept that no artificial constraints or controls they wish
to impose on their participation will be honored or they will simply not
be allowed to affiliate themselves with the project. The Healing Arts
Project is designed to be successful on the merits of the belief that,
especially in the case of victims of abuse, the most counterproductive
thing to do in the interest of helping one who feels powerless is to add
to that feeling by imposing restrictions on how the participants are
allowed to go about attempting to seek healing. As such, IFS will not
allow any manner of artificial restriction or constraint to be applied
to any aspect of the implementation of the project.
How it works:
There
are two facets to this initiative. Both are designed to provide the
same benefit opportunity to those who choose to participate, and both
options are available to any entity wishing to make these opportunities
available.
The first option is simply to receive donated art
supplies at their location to be made available at will to at-risk
participants, either to be used on site or taken home and used at the
leisure of the participant as their circumstance allows. Distribution of
these materials is to be anonymous in nature and ONLY to persons in
crisis. There will be no sign-out sheets provided (or allowed) and IFS
reserves the right to oversee and administrate such operations as
necessary to ensure the intent of the project is being met
satisfactorily. Any entity operating under the name The Healing Arts
Project and outside of the scope and intent of such will be asked to
correct the issue or cease their affiliation with the project in
particular and Impossible Fantasy Studio in perpetuity.
The
second option is a regularly held, on-site event where representatives
from IFS will bring in the art supplies for the event and maintain a
presence throughout to assist the participants in technical aspects of
using the provided media. Participation will again be anonymous and only
open to individuals this project is intended to benefit. There will be
no sign-in sheets and no requirement on the part of the participants to
stay for the duration of the event or participate on a regular basis.
There will be no expectation for open discussion or "sharing" and no
attempts on the part of studio representatives to provide structured
counseling or opportunity for the participating host organization/
entity to turn these events into a structured therapy session. For this
option there will be the possibility of an expectation on the part of
the host organization to assist in defraying the cost of materials, but
such matters will be addressed on a case-by-case basis and discussed at
great lengths prior to acceptance of the organization's involvement. At
no time will any representative of Impossible Fantasy Studio seek any
form of compensation for their time devoted to this project. Conversely,
any organization discovered to be collecting any type of "registration
fee" or any monies otherwise designated from the participants for any
reason that can be in any way construed as a payment for their
participation in the project will be immediately severed from the
project and actions will be undertaken to ensure the repayment of such
funds to the participants.
How to participate:
If
you or an organization you are aware of would like to contribute to
this undertaking, there are two ways you can help. First, you may donate
new or gently used art supplies or funds to Impossible Fantasy Studio
either in person or parcel carrier (in the case of supplies and
equipment) or via a paypal account (for monetary donations. The link to
the applicable paypal account will be posted right here shortly.
secondly, if you are a representative of an organization such as a
church, shelter, outreach program, or even a concerned private citizen
with available space for such a program and an EARNEST desire to help,
you may contact us by any of the methods listed below to donate your
space and discuss any further questions you may have. For further
information, please leave a message with us through this website, on our
facebook page at
www.facebook.com/ImpossibleFantasy, or by phone at (337) 263-1859.
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