Did you get a new camera for Christmas? Is your previously loved camera getting that cold shoulder feeling? If you have a camera sitting on the shelf waiting to find a new home then please consider donating it to the Kids to Kids project connecting kids here in Courtenay with kids in Assam, India. Local photographer Sarah Kerr is going to Assam to work with children and youth to help them tell their own stories through images. The Kids to Kids Project is part of a new initiative by Fertile Ground East/West Sustainability Network, a Comox Valley non-profit that provides sustainable organic agriculture education in rural India.

You may ask, what does growing food have to do with photography? The answer would be that sustainable agriculture is a universal activity that connects people from all sides of the world. This is what the Kids to Kids project and Sarah Kerr are trying to do with this new project. Local elementary school students from Queneesh Elementary and the Montessori Program will be creating and photographing “stories” about their lives. They will be gathered and taken over for the kids in Assam who will send back their stories to the kids at Queneesh.

Sarah Kerr will be traveling to Assam in February to work with the kids and teach some basic camera and story telling skills. She is going to leave the cameras that have been donated from our community with the schools and communities where she will be working. Sarah put out a request in October for cameras and so far the response has been wonderful. She thanks all those that have donated so far. If you have not had a chance to drop off your used digital camera, including charger and any other accessories, then please take the time to do so by visiting either Valley links at 532 5th Street
or A Thousand Word Photography at #105-2270 Cliffe Ave in Courtenay.

If you would like to support the Kids to Kids Project and Sarah Kerr in a further way then please come to the Seeds of Rhythm, a night of diverse dance and fusion music on Jan 22 at the Masonic Hall in Cumberland. You will be treated to beautiful dancers, live tabla and sitar playing and 3 talented DJ’s to get you on your feet dancing to the rhythms of the world. For more info on the “Kids to Kids project visit www.fertile-ground.org
or www.sarahkerrphotography.ca