Monthly Storytime at Local Farmer's Market

As local farmer's markets become increasingly popular throughout the nation, we are fortunate to have an "in" with a continuously growing market going on it's 4th successful year.

Momma's Organic Market originally started in the front yard at Christa Esquibel's mom's home. After the first busy season in her mom's residential neighborhood, Christa, along with her partner and sister-in-law Emy Porter, moved the event to the "new" Park West shopping center off of Northern and the 101 in Peoria, AZ. 

Today, the market has grown to four local farms providing organic produce plus over 100 vendors offering a variety of products including food, personal care products, clothing, pet supplies, jewelry and home decor. In addition to hours of endless shopping, Momma's Organic Market has a petting zoo, a bounce house and a *world famous* story time including author/illustrator Emerson Colwell, Jr.

This month, our audience had a lesson in cartooning after the book reading. Children are quick learners and follow directions so well. We had tables full of fascinated girls and boys successfully drawing the cutest sea gulls ever!

One thing that is so fun about all our story times is that we always meet fabulous new friends who are very familiar with the East Coast. Our recent event included a family that has vacationed in Westerly, RI for over 30 years. We were excited to chat with them about Rhode Island and help them out with multiple copies of The Bay Gull for their family and friends!

Momma's Organic Market is the third Saturday of the month from September - April. The first 200 customers receive a free reusable bag filled with coupons and fabulous goodies from local businesses. For more information including becoming a vendor or featuring a gift for the bags, please contact Christa Esquibel at (602) 703-7154

Monthly Storytime at Local Farmer's Market

The Bay Gull Featured in The Bay Magazine August 2010

In just a year, The Bay has grown as one of the most popular magazines in RI for information on "Living Well on the East Bay & South Coast." This free monthly magazine can be found throughout the Ocean State and we are SO proud to be featured in the August 2010 Kids Issue.

On page 24, Julie Sickel reviewed two books by local authors, Bun, Onion, Burger by Peter Mandel and The Bay Gull by Emerson Colwell. What an honor to be recognized with Mr. Mandel, adventure journalist and author of nine children's books.

For those of you who are unable to pick up your own copy, you can check out the review here!

Special thanks to Julie Sickel for the great review, The Bay's Editor Julie Tremaine for requesting a copy of the book when we were in town last March and the entire staff at The Bay for your hard work every month!

You can find them on Facebook - search "Bay Mag" and send a friend request.

The Bay Gull Featured in The Bay Magazine August 2010

Teaching Children To Draw Seagulls

This past week, Emerson had the opportunity to work with 100+ children at a local Vacation Bible School. The theme of the week long, all day program was "The High Seas Expedition." In addition to a set curriculum, each afternoon featured special guests from the community. The Bay Gull was a perfect compliment to the program with the ocean theme and the sea gull himself being on quite a journey of his own throughout Narragansett Bay.

A typical book event is about 30 minutes with reading the book plus Q&A time. The coordinator scheduled Emerson to fill one hour of the afternoon program. So how do you fill an hour and keep a group of 3 year old through 5th grade children entertained?

It was not an easy task that I presented Emerson with the night before his presentation. He spent hours online researching interesting facts about the lighthouses presented in The Bay Gull. We went over the information together and discussed how this would keep the whole group engaged.

With half a morning to think more about the event, Emerson came up with a fabulous idea - teach the children how to draw the sea gull! Each of the kids were given a sheet of paper and a crayon. As Emerson went through the elements of the bird, the children repeated the actions on their own paper. A few of the children chose to make paper airplanes instead (including our son) but the majority of the group followed along.

The quick activity produced countless sea gull art pieces which the children proudly showed off to each other and their guest. Children are so fun to teach because they are so eager to learn. I bet we'll see some fabulous artists, illustrators, story tellers and authors coming out of that group.

Our middle child, Grace, was very proud of her sea gull art. Not exactly like daddy's but it sure is cute.

Feel free to check out the video and learn how to draw The Bay Gull!

Teaching Children To Draw Seagulls

Marine Conservation - What You Can Do

Marine Conservation - What You Can Do
reprinted from The Nature Conservancy

Oceans need our help to stay healthy. And no matter where you live, you need healthy oceans to support your daily life – air to breathe, food to eat, places to work and play. With your support, we can change the course for our oceans and coasts and the people who depend on them. Even small changes can make a difference. Here's how you can help:

1. Reduce your plastic consumption. The most frequently collected items during beach cleanups are made of plastic — think reusable shopping bags, water bottles and utensils.
2. Make informed seafood choices. Keep a copy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood guide in your wallet or text Blue Ocean’s FishPhone to help you choose sustainable seafood at the grocery store or a restaurant.
3. Dispose of chemicals properly. Never pour chemicals, pharmaceuticals, oil or paint into the drain or toilets. Check with your county’s household hazardous waste program to properly dispose of or recycle chemicals and keep them out of rivers and oceans.
4. Choose green detergents and household cleaners—or make your own! Besides being better for your own health, these products are safer for the environment since what goes down the drain can end up in our oceans.
5. Get the dirt on your beachside retreat. Before you stay in a hotel on the coast, ask staff what happens to their sewage and swimming pool water, and if they source their restaurant fish from sustainable sources.
6. Find out the source of your food. Buying local, organic food reduces your carbon footprint, supports the local economy and reduces the amount of pesticides and fertilizers that end up not just in your stomach, but as run-off in rivers and oceans, too.
7. Fill your yard with native species. Reducing the amount of grass in your lawn by planting native shrubs and flower beds will provide a better habitat for birds and other wildlife and require far less water and fertilizer, which can seep into the oceans.
8. Keep your beach visit clean. When visiting the beach, stay off fragile sand dunes, take your trash with you and leave plants, birds and wildlife for everyone to enjoy. Learn how to spot a healthy beach. or find a Conservancy coastal preserve near you.
9. Choose alternatives to coral. Whether shopping for jewelry, household décor or accessories for your fish tank, do your part to leave fragile coral reef habitats untouched by buying products that aren’t made of real coral.
10. Celebrate our oceans. Whether you live inland or on the coast, we are all connected to the ocean; take the time to organize or participate in activities that restore and celebrate the ocean, and help support The Nature Conservancy’s ocean conservation work.
    
    
    1. Donate online now to support The Nature Conservancy’s work to protect and restore marine habitats in your area and around the world.
    2. Rescue a Reef to help protect some of the most threatened corals in the world.
    3. Sign up for the Conservancy’s Great Places Network, a free online membership program, to learn more about what the Conservancy is doing in your state and around the globe.
    4. Test your oceans knowledge with our online quiz.
    5. Send an ocean e-card to friends and family.

Marine Conservation - What You Can Do

Next "The Bay Gull" Children's Book ALL about the Gulf of Mexico

In March, we took a whirlwind tour through RI and CT, visiting over 1,000 children in 5 days. Our goal for the trip was to reach out to schools, sharing the story and stressing education about our environment, while helping to raise money for the schools through book sales. All of the presentations were so fun, the kids (as always!) were amazing - we love it when they think the bagel is a donut! - and we raised nearly $1,000 for their schools.

There was a VERY cute preschool in Coventry where nearly 90% of the parents purchased books for their children! Now those are some supportive parents!! Although the first The Bay Gull is set in Rhode Island, our trip confirmed the story's appeal outside of the Ocean State. Only one of the days of our trip was in Connecticut and the 2 schools we visited there raised more money for their educational programs than all of our other stops combined.

Well, we knew that even people in the desert like a good book about the ocean but we still would love to see many more books about other beautiful coastal areas. Since our trip, we have been slowly but surely preparing our next 2 books, one about San Diego and the other about the Chesapeake area. Researching coastal areas can be a nightmare as there are so many sites to navigate through. Finding relevant information that we can use for the books can take lots of time.

One place that is easy to find information about right now is the Gulf of Mexico and because of that, we are putting the other books on hold to focus on creating a great Bay Gull book for the Louisiana area. Neither of us have been there but with all the publicity, we have been finding resources that can help with the Bay Gull's travels fairly easily. A pre-order form is up on our website, feel free to add your name to our mailing list and send along any comments about our new book.

Next "The Bay Gull" Children's Book ALL about the Gulf of Mexico

Art Walk & Lighthouse Pictures along with The Bay Gull

This past Saturday, Emerson had the opportunity to participate in an Art Walk, scheduled as an added benefit to a first anniversary celebration for an upscale apartment/condo village in Surprise. In addition to the 15 or so artists, residents and guests were treated to breakfast, children participated in carnival games along with treats like face painting, snow cones and cotton candy, a fun "treasure hunt" was available for those who toured several apartment models and overall, it was a very fun family event. We found out about the event through a friend who sent along an invitation for our family and in conversation, she mentioned that they were still looking for artists. Only a little over a week away, we decided to jump on the chance and signed up for a table on the Art Walk. Since publishing The Bay Gull last summer, Emerson has been working on his drawings, practicing with different mediums like watercolors and watercolor pencils (although he prefers colored pencils) and even completed a drawing course to learn some new techniques, particularly with charcoal.
The Art Walk posed as a great opportunity for several reasons: Emerson was able to display his book along with other art work that he has created for free, he talked with everyone about his work to get their feedback, particularly listening to areas where he could improve for public appeal, he networked with other local artists and swapped cards with them and he had a chance to create a great table display.

On display at his table we had a book of his cartoons, 10 framed lighthouse drawings that he has created and The Bay Gull. We used boxes to create height, lots of tablecoths, sheets and fabric to cover the two 8 foot tables, nautical accents including shells that our son collected from Narragansett Bay on our last trip back in March and some fabulous "fish nets" for our backdrop and more texture on the table. In addition, Emerson displayed a nautical chart plus a couple of books, one about lighthouses and the other, Narragansett Bay, by Richard Benjamin and John Torgan, which is the most beautiful photo book offering breathtaking photos from throughout the state of Rhode Island.
It was a great day for us as a family and, because the opportunity was free, we were able to fully enjoy the event without the stress of covering any costs. Our rewards for this event included the experience and knowledge that we gained from putting everything together for the tables, the additional artwork Emerson completed in time for the show as deadlines ALWAYS help to get work done, being in the presence of other talented, gifted artists, plus we won a raffle prize, beautiful custom designed coasters, from one of the other artists!

Art Walk & Lighthouse Pictures along with The Bay Gull

Emerson invited to work with 7th Annual Literacy Day in Phoenix

TINK INK Publishing

Teaching, Inspiring, Nurturing Kids ~ Illustrated Children’s Books

 

Children’s Author & Illustrator Emerson M. Colwell, Jr. Honored to Participate in Phoenix Head Start Literacy Day

Phoenix Head Start Hosts 7^th Annual Literacy Day on Tuesday, April 20

Phoenix, AZ – Children’s author/illustrator Emerson M. Colwell, Jr. will be one of 66 volunteers helping to promote literacy with three to five-year-old children. The 7^th Annual Literacy Day, hosted by the City of Phoenix, takes place on Tuesday, April 20. This year, volunteers will be reading the book Hop Jump by author/illustrator Ellen Stoll Walsh whose popular children’s books also include Mouse Paint and Mouse Count.

More than 90 Phoenix Head Start classrooms will be visited and the volunteer list includes Mayor Phil Gordon, Councilman Bill Gates and City Manager Davis Cavazos.

All the Head Start classrooms will receive a copy of the book and 3,090 children will receive their own book to take home.

Mr. Colwell will be reading at Esperanza Elementary School, 251 W. Mohawk Ln, Phoenix, AZ 85027 at 9:30 a.m. and the media is welcome to attend.

About the Author

Inspired by his love for the Ocean State and the beautiful Rhode Island coastline, Emerson M. Colwell, Jr. wrote and illustrated his newly released first children’s book The Bay Gull. His second book, The Fisher Cat, will be released later this year.

Emerson resides in Peoria, AZ with his wife and three children.

For more information, visit www.tinkinkpublishing.com.

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Emerson invited to work with 7th Annual Literacy Day in Phoenix