Patience?

I want so badly for something to happen. Something happy and good and inspiring. Dear Summer time: Come quickly! I wish that I could snap my fingers and Raffi would be here to play a free concert for us all in Sylvester Park. I would wiggle until I dropped!

I just wanted to say that I haven’t forgotten about this project and I am still hoping to hear from more people who are interested in collaborating or interacting with us.

When the sun comes out, so shall the badminton rackets and free lemonade!

HOORAY!!

Click on this comic strip to enlarge. A big thank you artist Chelsea Baker for drawing our Hot Cocoa Adventure!! I’m so glad that everyone loved it as much as they did. We had such a blast!! More awesome comics by Chelsea can be found at www.chelseathebaker.com so go check it out!! Thanks again!

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who emailed me about the ‘Everything Drive’. Thank you for your items and thank you for caring. I think it is important to give things to the right people, instead of dropping them off at Goodwill, (although I love to shop there…). There are tons of free-closets whose visitors need your things more.

Thank you again, Olympians!

The Everything Drive

Greetings Olympians! I have had very little response in regards to the Everything Drive we dreamed up… so I’m going to change the rules a little bit. If you already have items that you’ve put to the side and wish to donate, send an email to elastic.koala@gmail.com and we’ll let you know what the next step is.

Otherwise, we’re calling this off and turning our focus to a kind of walk-in juggling lesson event…

Donation Sites…

So we’re thinking about collecting donations for Community Youth Services, the Food Bank, possibly the Food Co-Op if anyone is interested, and for the fire department’s efforts to help house-fire victims rebuild their lives.

How’s that sound? Is anyone interested in donating? Anyone tired of waiting and thinking of tossing things or taking their stuff to goodwill instead?

LET US KNOW BEFORE YOU GO. Email me at elastic.koala@gmail.com

We’re planning and ‘Everything Drive’!

Good afternoon, Olympia! Just a quick note to let you know that as of today, we’re planning a food and clothing drive! We’ll also be accepting any other useful items, especially house hold items/toiletries and toys/art supplies for kids!

Let everyone you know in on it! Tell Olympia to start saving their unwanted items… If you don’t drive, we’ll come get it from you ourselves!

Since this idea was just born today, we haven’t pinned down the exact recipients of your good deeds, but off the top of my head I am hoping to help out Community Youth Services, The Olympia Food Bank, and (depending on the turn out of children’s toys and such) I have a number of local daycares in mind.

Due to the fact that I live in Tumwater, I’m hoping to leave a few donation boxes near my house. Mega Foods and Michael T. Simmons Elementary perhaps??

We’re going to get right on the planning, and when we figure out where our drop boxes will be located, we’ll post it right away… but like I said… We have no problem picking up donations LOCALLY for those who are vehicularly challenged 🙂

Hooray! I can’t wait!

Hot Cocoa Night! Over and Done.

Well, I have to start by saying that Hot Cocoa Night was a success! We were almost shut down before we even began when our wagon was compromised, (thought I was going to have to resort to skate boards and rope!!) but my friend came to the rescue and delivered one at nearly the last minute! We went to the West Side with a little-red-wagon, 5 gallons of hot water, 100 cups, and loads of cocoa and cider.

We filled our water at a friend’s house and walked the few blocks to Harrison. We didn’t even make it two whole blocks before all 50 cups were gone! We never really made it off the sidewalk! People loved us.

We hit the spot, we kept them warm, we made them smile, we got strange looks… It was rad. People seemed very surprised that the drinks were FREE. We still made a little bit of money, though we never even asked for it. Thank you! I had such a blast and I can’t wait to do this again. Who cares if it’s Arts Walk? People like cider all year round.

We went downtown to try and get rid of the rest, but it was far less successful… We did run out of cider though, and only have a couple cocoas left. I AM SO GLAD EVERYONE LOVED WHAT WE WERE DOING. THANK YOU FOR NOT REFUSING DRINKS FROM STRANGERS!!!

“You should have been on the flyer!”, one person said… which I didn’t even think of… and the best quote of the night was probably, “What you guys are doing defines what Olympia means…”. We were also asked if we were part of EGYHOP or The Raccoon Collective…

Whoa.

Unfortunately, we only managed to snap two pictures because of camera and picture-taker problems… I was really looking forward to having some pictures taken with the kick-ball group at Garfield, but then the cops came to break it up. Maybe next time?

Thanks again, Olympia!

West Side Arts Walk: Jan 30th

Hooray! The Circus is back in business! We’ll be waltzing around at the West Side Arts Walk on January 30th. I have no idea what it will be like, as this will be my first West Side Arts Walk, but I am really excited just to get out there and have some fun.

The Plan: Simply to run around handing out free hot cocoa and hot apple cider to anyone who doesn’t refuse us!

My friend knows a house that will supply us with enough hot water to hopefully hand out all the drinks I bought…. and I just can’t wait! Whether you see us there or not, HAVE A BLAST THIS WEEKEND!!! Live it up, Olympia!!

Nerf Fight??

My friends came up with an amazing idea for some kind of nerf-gun-fight in downtown Olympia and wanted to connect it to The Circus with an open invite to everyone in town… It’s still in the planning stages, and they may want to wait until it gets warm again, but I just thought I would stop in and share my excitement.

Happy New Year’s Eve, Olympia! Have fun and stay safe. I hope everyone’s holidays have been fantastic.

A Cancellation…

Tonight is the night of a show by a great band, ‘Boozegrass’ that The Circus had planned to do an intermission act for. Unfortunately, my main circus friend has pneumonia and is otherwise incapacitated. I am really sad that this opportunity has gone by, but I will remain hopeful and keep looking forward to the hot cocoa nights that are soon to come.

It’s definitely cold enough now!

Hot Cocoa and Cider

Hey everyone! The OAGC is planning to bring hot cocoa and hot apple cider to the streets of downtown Olympia this winter! We’re not sure what dates yet, but I’ve got all the supplies and support ready, and now I’m just waiting for it to get a little colder out.

Charles Lampard, owner of The C&D Gourmet Coffee House on 4th Ave, has agreed to supply The Circus with the hot water! I’m going to try and find a little-red-wagon to use for a drink cart, as we’re planning on making rounds every so often to hand the cocoa out to people. Charles said that in addition to just walking around offering cider, that we could use his store as a kind of home-base where people could come and get it themselves, if they were out looking for us.

Anyhow, I’ll let you know when it gets closer to go-time. In the meanwhile, enjoy yourselves and enjoy each other, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

PS: I also have this awesome idea that ties really neatly into First Friday. I’m really excited to put this event together, though I might need a few extra helping hands on this… Scavenger hunt/local business/kid fun/prizes type deal? I’ll get back to you on that one.

Haven’t heard of First Friday? Go to www.everydayolympia.com and check it out. If you scroll all the way down there’ll be an FF link…

Update for Parents and Youth!

Hello, everyone! I’ve just added a handful of links ‘For Kids’ on the right hand side of my page. I hope that some of them are useful to you and yours. I am especially impressed with Kids Craft Weekly, which I have been subscribed to for months. I love doing simple and silly crafts like that, that make me feel as young and happy as the people their intended for…

Also, I would definately suggest that you check out The Kidz Page site. There are tons of games on there that are learning based, from math, to reading, to history. Awesome logic puzzles.

Anyway- I just wanted to bring attention to the new links there. Enjoy!

The Joys of Face Painting

I don’t even know where to start. We met so many wonderful people who were interested in The Circus and thought that what we are doing is amazing. Thank you to everyone who talked with us about future opportunities and promotion. If any of you are reading this, we are extreemely interested in working with you and would love for you to contact us!

A special thanks to the woman who told me about Big Brothers Big Sisters and their auction.

I have no idea how many faces we painted. Probably collectively around 30. It was amazing and fantastic and I had no idea that it was going to be that much fun. I wish there were more oppportunities to do things like that! I guess there will be, since I plan to create some, haha.

The face painting was free, and so I would like to send a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to The Circus.

Arts Walk: Face Painting!

The Circus is ready for tomorrow night, when we’ll be painting faces downtown for Arts Walk…

We also have gift bags to hand out to kids, that have stickers, chalk, glow sticks, and small toys in them. Come check us out on the corner of Washington and State Ave, in the einmaleins parking lot. We”ll be down there from about 5pm to 10pm.

I sure hope it doesn’t rain, but if it does… we’ll just have to bring in Plan B. We shall triumph!

Enjoy Arts Walk everyone!

Thank you, Sarah!

…Someone must thing we’re pretty neat….

http://olyblog.net/olympian-above-ground-circus

‘Bubble Party’ A Success!

Friday night’s ‘Bubble Party’ was a success! Charlotte and I dressed up and went downtown armed with a bag full of goodies, high hopes, and a band of supportive friends. We were hugged, high-fived, and laughed at (and with).

First thing’s first: When we walked past ‘Jake’s on 4th’ and everyone loved our outfits. One woman wanted to have her picture taken with us, and of course we were happy to do it, and we told her we would post it on our site so she could find it. She is our ‘number one fan’, haha.

Dear Number One Fan, I hope you found your picture on The Circus’s Flickr account. Just incase you didn’t, I stuck it right in this article for you! Thank you so much!

We passed out small bottles of bubbles, sparklers, pop-its, and party poppers to anyone who would take them. We even went around to the back of ‘Jakes’ and ‘The Brotherhood’ and handed things out to people through the smoking area fences.

Charlotte and I ran up and down the block with sparklers flaring, squealing with joy. We sang with street performers, had our picture taken with random people, and got a lot of compliments and high-fives.

One man stopped us, and holding his hands out with a look of confusion on his face said, “Who are you with? What is this?” He was very interested and I”m guessing, pretty intrigued. Good thing we had make-shift business cards to hand out!

Thank you so much to everyone who came down to support us, and to everyone who participated in our mischief. We hope we made your night better, or at least made you smile… I had no idea it would be as fun as it was, and of course, it’s all because of your awesome reaction! Thanks again, Olympia!

“Bubble Party” on Everyday Olympia

‘Everyday Olympia’ posted an article on our “Bubble Party” event. Click here to see it!!

Thankyou EDO and einmaleins!

Shopping Spree!

My best friend and fellow Circus member, Charlotte, and I went on a shopping spree this evening and are all ready for this Friday’s ‘Bubble Party’. We have small bottles of bubbles to hand out, and silly pull-string, confetti-shooting noise makers to play with…

And we spent a good amount of time getting ready for Arts Walk… If you’re planning on going to Arts Walk, (October 2nd) and you have children, or know people who do, you should spread the word that ‘The Circus’ is planning a kid-friendly event. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that most of the Arts Walk attractions aren’t particularly geared towards children, and so we’re reaching out to the younger crowd on this one.

We’ll be painting faces and handing out free toys and stickers to the children who stop by our table. Actually, we’ll be giving them to adults, too… So if you have kids or not, and just happen to really like tiny plastic dinosaurs and glow sticks, stop by and see us. We’ll be on the corner of Washington and State Street, in the parking lot of ‘einmaleins’.

Hope you’re all as excited as we are. See you there, Olympians!

The Circus on “Everyday Olympia”

Here is a copy of the article that was posted on everydayolympia.com about The Olympian Above Ground Circus, and a bit about our event, ‘Badminton in the Park’. Thank you EDO and einmaleins!

Click ‘more’ for the full article, or click here to see it on EDO.

Arts Walk – October 2009

Arts Walk is coming up again and The Circus is ready! We haven’t come up with a concrete plan yet, but I will update this as soon as we’ve figured it all out. Right now we’re thinking of doing a face painting table, with fun things to hand out to kids, all free.

We will have to put a donation jar out, but it will definately only be on a ‘suggested donation’ basis.

If you think face painting is a good idea, maybe leave a comment with ideas of what your children might like painted on their cheeks? It’s been especially hard thinking of designs for boys.

 

THANK YOU!

Bubble Party!

Hello everyone! The Circus is about to throw it’s second event! We’re having a ‘bubble party’ in downtown Olympia on September 25th. We’ll be downtown from 9 pm to 11 pm, or later if it turns out well, running around in funny outfits blowing bubbles at strangers. We’re bringing our friends, and inviting anyone who sees us down there to joing in.

As well as parading up and down the drag dressed like maniacs with bubble wands, we will be bringing little bubble bottles to hand out to anyone who is willing to take one. We hope this event brings smiles to your faces, if not strange looks and maybe some eye-rolling. If you don’t think what we’re doing is great, at least we’ll have given you something to talk about later! Anything that adds something interesting to your day is a good thing, I’d say.

See you next Friday, Olympians!!

Badminton in the Park

The Circus’s first event, ‘Badminton in the Park’, was held on August 30th 2009. We met up in Sylvester Park and played, no nets – no rules, for about two hours. The whole community was invited to join in, and we brought lemonade for the participants. Crap, lemonade for any thirsty passerby!

About 15 people showed up, and about 8 people played. Being our first event, I was really pleased with the turn out. It was a blast and I am really excited for our next event.

You can check out The Circus’s Flickr site, which is linked on the sidebar of this page, for pictures taken at the event.

As always, if you have any ideas or suggestion for The Circus… any events you’d like to throw, have us throw, get involved in… please let me know. More than anything, I want to do what YOU guys want to see happen!! Thanks everyone!

We’re Here!

Well, it’s another new beginning for The Above Ground Circus, with another try at a website. Who knows, maybe this one will be just the thing I was looking for! Now if I could only figure out how to work it…

WHAT exactly is this circus thing all about? The Olympian Above Ground Circus is a new ‘troupe’ that aims to build a stronger community and remind people of what’s really important: enjoyment, wonder, family, freedom, and most of all… FUN. We want to bring out the child in you by creating a space that is comfortable and safe where nobody will ever get away with putting you down.

So what’s the plan? Well, we’re going to make you smile, make you laugh, and make you happy. We’re going to throw safe and healthy social opportunities your way as often as we can. We’re going to awe you, inspire you, and get your creativity flowing. We’re going to play games with you until you can’t breathe anymore…

HOW are we going to do all that? That’s easy… First of all, you’ll never be asked to be more or less involved than you want to be. If you want to join us, that will make us just as happy as if you just come to watch. Whether we are putting on a show for you, taking the city by storm as a group, reading kids books, playing badminton, or dancing around in the rain… it’s all for you and your comfort level is important to us. We plan on doing light shows, playing lots of games (no nets and no rules), walking around on stilts, and maybe someday doing a public art installation. It all depends… since most of our events and escapades will hopefully come from YOUR suggestions…

SUGGEST an escapade! We want to know what you want to do or see us do. We want to know what you think is fun, crazy, beautiful, educational, interesting, or just plain silly. Tell us what you want, so we can do it for you. We may have meetings once a month, based on public response, that you’re all welcome to come to… or you can send me your ideas online. In fact, if you have an idea today, come to my facebook and let me know what you’re thinking. Click here to be zipped over to my facebook page.

WHY are these crazy people doing this?? The idea first came to me when I tried to go to a certain event and was nearly turned away. I wasn’t “like” them, apparently… I want to create something that has no boundaries and no discrimination; where nobody is ever turned away. That event I went to also called itself “kid friendly” which, I’m sure a lot of people would have disagreed with. So that’s another part of it. I will be what I say I am, do what I say I’ll do, and if it’s not for kids- I won’t pretend that it’s all and well.

I want you to feel good. I want you to feel happy and alive and yourself. I want to put an end to classes and denominations and isms… by creating a “politics free” series of events… We should all be embracing life and our individuality instead of molding ourselves to television icons. The Above Ground Circus will never watch TV with you…

THANK YOU to everyone who is reading this. I would love to hear your thoughts, advice, and criticism… and I would love to involve you in the billions of events to come.