The Dreamers lived up in the clouds. Looking down from on high at the strange world below them, they took every opportunity they could to lie down, close their eyes, and dream the day away.
The doers down on earth had no time for dreaming. In fact, they had no time for thinking either. Their motto was just build and make and do, avoiding at all costs ever thinking about what they were doing, or dreaming about a world outside their own.
The thinkers, now there was a bunch. They were always questioning, pondering and studying, without ever putting anything into action.
It is not hard to see the social satire that exists below the surface of this colorful piece of youth theater, “One Tribe, Come Together.”
This musical play was the product of Reach for the Sky July, a program which has been running in the summer holidays on the Eastside for 13 years.
More than just a theater camp, Reach for the Sky is specifically geared toward those children who might otherwise not have the opportunity to take part in summer camps or other fun activities.
“I call them the ‘latchkey kids’,” said Kathi Marin, who founded Reach for the Sky out of her Center for Dance studio on Front Street in Issaquah in the 1990s. “That’s because they typically would spend most of their summer holidays home alone.”
Getting by on shoe string budgets and an energy akin to the young children she serves, Marin has kept Reach for the Sky afloat in one form or another over the years to provide not just a creative outlet but also a stable family for under served and at-risk children.
“Like a lot of us, these young people have a lot going on at home,” she said. “Reach for the Sky July is something they can always come back to – like a family. We’re like the old Aunts.”
As The Reporter waited for the dress rehearsal of “One Tribe” to begin, that idea of family was clear to see. Young adults who had once been students of Marin greeted each other warmly, hugs were exchanged, there was feeling of reunion that was a testimony to Marin’s idea of giving the children something to belong to.
Each year 40 under-served 8-12 year old children from the community are given full scholarships to attend the camp, thanks to the support of private benefactors such as Costco, Tiger Mt Teriyaki and the Community Church of Issaquah, and also government agencies such as the Issaquah Arts Commission.
They receive instruction in dance, art, and theater, and develop a production of their own which they perform at the end of camp.
“The children we serve often come from non thriving environments with little exposure to the beauty of art,” Marin said. “The purpose of the camp is to encourage respect for each other, their world and themselves, while being exposed to the arts in a hands-on experience.”
For more information, go to www.reachfortheskyjuly.org
