Arts and Cultural Heritage Grant

All three authors who will instruct and confer with girls are Minnesota authors. Mary Casanova, who raised her family on Rainy Lake, began this camp to support northern Minnesota rural teens to storytell, reflect on their upbringing and experiences, and share their creative work with their community. Casanova has several books which reflect Northern Minnesota people and experiences. Mary and the authors who are joining her know the writing community well too. They each take part in retreats and understand what it takes to build trust and resilience to do this work. They are so humble and kind hearted as they work with each young writer's strength, background and need. The girls who attend this camp come from a variety of background and experiences. The bond that is created because of the authors' instruction and interactions with them is powerful. The girls become confident in themselves as thinkers and writers, and it benefits the community at large. The true assessment is when the girls share their writing the last night and are so proud of their accomplishments. We have the campers complete a reflection survey to receive feedback about their experience. We can use this feedback to help promote and tweak the program. We also measure success from year to year by the number of girls who return year after year.Furthermore, we will know we are successful when the girls progress in their education in both high school and college. Their confidence and skill they learn as writers, along with the life skill of being able to give and receive productive criticism shines in the classroom and in their communities.