Sean was one of the first people I turned to when the seed of the gratitude project was first planted in my heart. I am honoured to feature him as my first grateful guest in the "sunday spotlight: celebrating lives greatly full" series! Thank you, dear friend...
Celebrating Art and Music With Community
by Sean Zio
In May 2013, I will be helping run the 8th annual Ravenswing Arts and Music Fair. This event features over 75 local artisans selling their unique goods, along with live music, free skill-sharing workshops and the Clothesline Project, a public art exhibit to end violence against women.
In 2005, a friend of mine and I had a dream to run a craft and zine fair in Ottawa in order to give local artisans and writers an affordable marketplace to sell their goods. We added music to support the great talent in our neighbourhood and added workshops to encourage community building and knowledge sharing.
In seven years, our event has tripled in terms of volunteers, participants and visitors to the fair. You would not believe the amount of work that the volunteer coordinators put into organizing this event—all for the love of celebrating art, music and community. Currently, we have eight coordinators who plan this event and nearly three dozen individuals who help run it on the day of the fair.
I am grateful to share the vision of Ravenswing with all of these people. Even more, I am grateful to get to support, trust and depend on these coordinators who I work with for the four months leading up to the event, and then to see all of our dedication come to life with the buzz of community and live tunes.
Every year when I know that we need to being organizing the fair, I get excited. I know that I will be spending more time with these friends, and I feel less alone in the world. For this, I am especially grateful.
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