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Curious creation
By Denise Dick
Kids learn environmental lesson at YMCA camp
By DENISE DICK
BOARDMAN
Ryan Detlor and Cora Ams, both 6, and Ava DiMaiolo and Will Blumel, both 7, turned trash into art.
The children were among those participating Friday in Camp Curiosity at the D.D. and Velma Davis Family YMCA.
“Every year at camp, we make something out of junk,” said Suzanne Gray, Y art instructor.
This year it was YETI, or YMCA Environmental Team Initiative, a 6-foot abominable junkman.
The Y’s maintenance director created a skeleton for the beast, which was then covered with chicken wire, Gray explained.
“We had to stuff bags inside of the chicken wire,” explained Ryan.
“Some people brought in bags,” Cora added. “We brought in old toys that were broken and we don’t play with anymore.”
The process began with each child drawing the abominable one.
“We were allowed to draw a picture of a yeti and to see how to put it together,” Ava said.
“Then we put the bags into the chicken wire,” Will said.
The end product is a hulking monster of plastic shopping bags, broken toys, planters, plastic bottles, fast-food drink lids, straws, tubing, glue-stick containers, tennis balls and baseballs and other material.
“The kids decided how to put it all together,” Gray said.
She worried that children wouldn’t know what a yeti was, but it’s a character in the movie “Monsters, Inc.” and the perennial Christmas television show “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
There’s an environmental message too, Gray said.
One of YETI’s parts is a plastic six-pack ring.
“We talked about how fish get caught in them and they’re found in the stomachs of marine animals,” Gray said.
After hanging out at the Y for a few weeks, YETI will be on display at the Canfield Fair.
“Then he’ll be recycled,” Gray said.