April 12 – Sexual Assault and Prevention Month Event (Penn State, University Park)
With our colleagues from the Penn State Gender Equity Center and the Peace Paper Project, we enthusiastically engaged students, faculty, and other adult learners at our first Penn State event. As a part of Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM), this special event highlighted the transformational power of art through paper-making and recycling material that would otherwise be discarded as waste.
Drew Matott founded the Peace Paper Project in collaboration with the art therapy community to run papermaking programs that help individuals around the globe overcome their traumatic experiences around the globe.
Students asked lots of questions about recycling, art as part of “social good”, and how to make the best paper pulp starfish 🙂 Who knew college students were so into painting and trying out our pedal-powered, paper pulp-making blender?*!
April 22 – ZooAmercia (Hershey, PA)
Jabebo celebrated Earth Day with our friends, colleagues, and excited visitors at ZooAmerica in Hershey, PA. We joined ZooAmerica’s Party for the Planet, sharing tales of cereal box recycling for our biodiversity-focused earrings and paper pulp figures.
Guests at our booth were thrilled by the ride on our special bicycle, using pedal-power to run a blender that chopped up and recycled cereal boxes into paper pulp right before their very eyes.
More fun followed as our guests created planet-friendly art from the paper pulp – molding and painting of starfish, paws, and fancy fishes!
April 29 – REEF.org First Arts and Science Festival (Key Largo, FL)
Citizen scientists engage with REEF snorkel and scuba dive around the world, surveying marine environments. With a remarkable total of 250,000+ surveys conducted at over 15,000 locations by more than 16,00 volunteers over 3 decades, REEF’s database of marine life is one of the largest in the world! *Stoplight Parrotfish”
Kevin, an avid fish geek and surveyor, helped make REEF’s first festival a big splash for kids of all ages who made and painted paper pulp starfish with us, perused the biodiversity in our earrings, and appreciated our fish ornaments! We were really pleased with the enthusiastic reception of the activity and that we contributed to educating locals about the reef watershed in which they live and do business. Jabebo sells earrings to a number of locations in South Florida and so we try to stop in as many as we can during our trips. After a quick survey of fishes offshore, Kevin’s journey continued, mixing business with the search for inspiration for Jabebo’s art. After an overnight at Bahia Honda State Park, which included snorkeling, strolling and observing wildlife, Kevin paid a visit to Crane Hammock in Marathon, MacArthur State Park, and the Hobe Sound Nature Center.
