Local nonprofit, The Camel Project, has partnered with several area organizations to host a street art festival in June, as an opportunity for all ages to show off their drawing talents with chalk.
The street art festival will host local artists, food trucks, and vendors on Saturday, June 5th, 2021, from 9am to 2pm at the Reading Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center campus.
To host the festival, The Camel Project has partnered with the O’Pake Institute and The Holleran Center for Community and Global Engagement at Alvernia University.
The mission of the festival is spark creativity and building confidence with each child, primarily through these tough times caused by trauma.
“Many children have not had enough social interactions. During this event, children event can do whatever and be weird as they want to be,” Pam Gockley said, the founder of The Camel Project.
Pam Gockley founded the nonprofit organization on what she needed as a child that she did not have.
“In this organization, adults can interact with the youth and children to help balance their emotions and behaviors by being balanced adults,” Gockley said.
She wanted children to build self-awareness, confidence, and problem-solving and adaptive skills, which they may not experience.
Gockley says she designed the event for students and adults to experience healthy balanced relationships by encouraging creativity that leads to self-awareness and confidence.
The festival will also be a DJ, and several art interactive demonstrations, where adults and children can enjoy and participate.
Gockley hopes the festival serves as a mental wellness day where children can be creative artists and in a safe environment.
The Camel Project is a nonprofit organization and seeks to reduce violence. There is a direct link between aggressive learned behaviors like bullying and violence, like suicide and mass shootings.
