Recognizing the importance of writing as a foundation for learning and in nurturing thought, in 2001 the Espy Foundation launched an exciting new program, developed in collaboration with local educators, for support of the humanities and the arts at Ilwaco High School on Washington's Long Beach Peninsula.

2008 Environmental Essay Writing Contest

Deadline: May 16th, 2008

The Espy Foundation offer cash prizes for essay writing on the topic of the environment written by Long Beach and vicinity students of high school age.

***Rules: 500-700 words, one entry per person.

***First page: Title, name, address, phone, parent/guardian name and phone.

***Layout: Double space; number the pages; text legible, 12-point type.

***Prizes: First Place $200, Second and Third Place $100.

***Delivery: Drop off with Andrea Marsh, Office Secretary, Ilwaco High

         School, or mail to Espy Foundation, PO Box 614, Oysterville, WA 98641.

***Judging: The Espy Foundation.

***Deadline: May 16th, 2008

***Contact: 360-665-5220 or info@espyfoundation.org

Topic: The Environment

The specific topic is the writer's choice, but target nature or humans interacting with the environment, preferably in the lower Columbia, Willapa Bay, or Long Beach Peninsula. For instance, consider focused topics such as a local wetland or low tide on Willapa Bay or razor clams on the ocean. Or describe nature's creatures. Or report or propose actions to improve or protect the environment. Or Profile people who are models, either conserving or working positively in the environment. Remember the topic is your choice, but must focus on the environment.

June 2008: Centrum High School Summer Arts Intensives

Upcoming in June 2008, the Espy Foundation and Centrum will again send four students from Ilwaco High School to Centrum's High School Arts Intensives in Port Townsend. The week-long June workshop will take place from the 22nd to 27th, and it will specialize in creative writing, dance/video, visual art, and drama.

The Arts Intensives will be led by faculty members Jeanine Gailey, Amber Wolfe, Amy Johnson, Jeffry Mitchell, Zoe Scofield, and Juniper Shuey. By providing "guidance and inspiration" and "a learning environment enriched by a community of peers", Centrum aims to teach the students to push the boundaries and develop their skills in the arts.

2007-2008 Espy Arts Education Project

The Espy Foundation's core strategy for the Arts & Humanities program is to bring writers and artists to the peninsula's students for workshops.  The first phase of this program is to focus on high school students at Ilwaco High School, Tlohon-nipts Alternative School, and the local home-schooling community.  The Espy Foundation has been working with teachers involved with all of these groups to develop our program for the 2007-2008 school year. 

Espy has engaged one writer and one artist to visit the Peninsula several times throughout the year to lead students in personal narrative-themed writing and art workshops culminating in a final art show/reading presentation in late May of 2008.  An introduction to visual artist Marita Dingus and writer Polly Buckingham is available here.

This plan is intended to develop long-term arts education for the students involved in the project and to set the groundwork for future expanded programs.  Our goals are to maximize available resources, develop community involvement, and to help strengthen Peninsula students' view of the role of art and creativity in daily life.

This program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Locally, the Ocean Beach Education Foundation and the Peninsula Rotary Club have also provided generous contributions to help fund this project.

February 2007:  Student Scholarships to Centrum

In February, the Espy Foundation partnered with Centrum in Port Townsend to send four students to Centrum's High School Arts Master Classes.  Full scholarships and travel stipends were provided through a combined effort between Espy and Centrum.

Each student participated in one of several available arts and writing workshops.  One student elected to participate in the "Performance Poetry" course, two students took "Telling Your Story," a writing mechanics workshop, and the fourth student selected "Slash, Burn, and Rip," focusing on alternative methods of creative expression through visual arts.

The program lasted for five days and culminated in an event to honor the creative work each student produced during their time at Centrum.  One of the students later related, "The workshop changed my life.  I'm learning to put my feelings into poems, and that's helped me a lot."

January 2007:  Creative Writing Workshop

Sibyl Kempson, an Espy writer in residence from New York, volunteered to spend two days of her January 2007 residency conducting creative writing workshops at Ilwaco High School and Tlohon-nipts Alternative School.  A playwright, Sibyl emphasized the importance of being able to turn off self-editing when writing creatively and to explore thoughts with an open, playful mind. 

Sibyl presented a non-traditional passage of prose and explained:  "It's not put together the way we're used to things being done, but that doesn't mean it's not communicating anything."  She then led extended free-writing sessions and a discussion of work produced, focusing on the point in each student's work where creative, impulsive writing took over.  Editing, Sibyl explained, is an important final stage of creative writing--absolutely not an initial stage.

Sibyl connected her ideas about finding a true creative voice by letting go of self-restrictions to a similar process in visual art:  "If I'm going to draw his nose, I'm going to have to forget that I'm drawing a nose.  I'm going to have to stop judging and just draw."  Sibyl challenged the students to stop judging themselves and just write.

The students in all workshops were delighted at Sibyl's enthusiastic perspective and mind-broadening exercises.  The Espy Foundation is deeply grateful to Sibyl Kempson for volunteering her time to conduct these workshops at local schools.  Her work has far-reaching consequences for many lives.

October 2006:  Tess Gallagher & Alfredo Arreguin

Poet Tess Gallagher and painter Alfredo Arreguin came to the Peninsula to present a combined slideshow and poetry reading that told the story of their lifelong collaboration together with the late writer Raymond Carver.  They made this presentation on October 6th to several classes at Ilwaco High School and on October 7th at a public event in Oysterville.  Tess and Alfredo reached out to the high school students with story after story about what being a normal person who is also an artist or a writer really means.  They encouraged the students to visualize these creative possibilities for their own lives.  The public audience at the Oysterville event was visibly (and audibly) moved by Tess' poems and Alfredo's paintings, and by their vivid stories describing the joys and struggles of lives devoted to art.  The Espy Foundation is so grateful to Tess and Alfredo for honoring us with their visit and for sharing their stories with our community.  This project was funded in part by a grant from PONCHO.

(Photo by October 2006 Espy resident Mary Stieglitz)