Congratulations to long-time Place des Arts client Donna Forsyth for taking first prize in our My Place des Arts Story Contest!
Donna’s story of finding solace at Place des Arts when her family was going through difficult times moved us deeply, and her Summer Fun art camp registration antics made us laugh (tsk, tsk, Donna)!
View the visual vignette about Donna, created by Eran Jayne Photography, and read Donna’s story below. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Home to me is a place where you can be 100% you! Where you can be grounded in your authenticity, whatever that looks like in the moment. Place des Arts is this place, which my family and I have enjoyed for over 20 years.
Since the age of 3 or 4, my children have enjoyed the summer camp series. So much so that, before there was online registration, I would have to camp in a lawn chair and blanky under the stars with a few other die-hards at 3:00 am to sign up the kids for summer. Why would I do such a thing you may ask? Because it was that important. Having two shy children (one on the autism spectrum) means the environment must feel good to them to thrive. Home is such a place, and Home became Place des Arts.
Later in life, my son had to have two brain surgeries for controlling epilepsy. Where did we tap into? The love and support of the amazing gifted people at Place des Arts who supported my family in a variety of ways.
In the early years, Mr. I led us through the doors of HOME in all his brilliance, combining education, music and being a positive human. Later in life, just before my son’s surgeries, our daughter took a painting and comic making course to relieve some stress and tension, and my son, he learned how to play the guitar three months before surgery to work through his worry. And what amazing therapy music became to him over the last six years! Post surgery, he required much Occupational and Physical Therapy. Playing music became this therapy.
Me, I took yoga and Pilates to ease my stress during these rough years. Always feeling the quiet support of so many at Place des Arts. Whether it was Tania, who helped make the system seamless with autism funding payments, Frank Bond, who for 10 years continues to inspire our son to express himself, to show up in his power and gifts and to let his hair down whether playing the guitar or piano, or Joey and Bernadette for reminding me of the importance of self-care while being a caregiver. This is home where we can shine, relax and re energize! Thank you, Place des Arts staff, for being the warm blanket for so many years!
If there was a color to describe how I feel when I come to Place des Arts, it would be yellow for happiness and pink for love and support. I have roses this color . . . they bud in yellow and as they open up, the pink emerges as it grows.
Truth be told, [one of my most memorable experiences at Place des Arts involves something that is] hard to admit to 16 years later! As I said earlier, I used to camp out early, really early, to ensure the kids got to go to Place des Arts’ summer camp. The first year, my youngest was upset that she wasn’t old enough to do all the amazing art that was coming home from her older brother’s art camp. The following year, I arrived earlier than 3:00 am with sleeping bag and tarp, as it was raining, to ensure I could enroll two kids. I was shocked to see I was in a line up at the front door with other parents who knew and experienced the power of arts at Place des Arts.
I was next in line at the front desk when I overheard a heated conversation someone was having about the age of their youngest child. What I learned was a child had to be a certain age before the program started. In my case my daughter would be underage for two weeks. Knowing this would crush her, as well as knowing that introducing her to this special place with the support of her brother would be important to her social skills as she was shy, I became a creative thinker, a writer of a sort. I decided to enroll my daughter using her middle name and bump up her age by two weeks!
Feeling quite panicky at this moment, and in total disbelief that I was doing this to ensure our child would be surrounded by the arts for the summer, I remember being quite sweaty and surprised by the story that was coming out of my mouth. I like to think it was sleep deprivation from being awake for 24 hours.
After completing the registration, the lovely receptionist, who had remembered our family from past events (which was the one moment I really wished to be incognito), said, “I thought you just had a boy and a girl.” I replied, “We have just acquired another girl.” Oh my, the creative juices were flowing . . . !