Mental Health & Creativity

Today, we welcomed back Sarah, from Yo Soy Ella, to lead a workshop called “Progress Over Perfection”. During this workshop, our mentees had a conversation about how you do not need to be perfect to succeed. Everyone has their ups and downs, but as long as you put your mind to what you want, you will succeed. Our mentees really enjoyed this workshop and the chance you dive deeper into what success means to them. Sarah has now led a total of four workshops with TFD, how amazing!

Our mentees made a transition to the tables to go over illustrator once more! Each group was given a prompt to create a design in Adobe Illustrator and present it at the end. Illustrator has so many unique tools to utilize, but we are taking it one step at a time!

Photos: Mariah

A Trip To ReUse Depot

Don’t you just hate how building supplies get tossed into landfills? ReUse Depot prevents this from happening. We recently visited ReUse Depot once again for our mentees to practice their photography skills! It was amazing to see our mentees put all that they have learned about photography to use, as well as meeting the store cats! We also learned about Maywood’s original Firetruck. The Firetruck pictured above was a World War II Firetruck that was donated to Maywood. This means that at some point between 1943-1980’s this Firetruck was in our Firehouse! We love learning about the history of our community, especially about our Firehouse. We can’t wait to visit again!

Photo credit: @mariah_julianna_

Journaling Session

Photo Credit: @_mariah_julianna_

It is important to dream, have hopes, and write down your goals. Today, our mentees learned the importance of journaling & storytelling. They wrote down the things that can sometimes pass through our minds. Every day we have success, but do you celebrate that success? Our workshop’s purpose was to teach gratitude for success, even if it is the smallest thing you succeeded in. Here are some of the topics our mentees were happy to be celebrating: “I am becoming more confident” and “I normally do not talk loud at school, but I notice myself starting to”.

Our mentees also were challenged with the idea of storytelling. They were asked, what is the story that they want to create about themselves? Every aspect of our lives become part of our story and who we are, so how can you shape that to be what you envision for yourself? We are so happy to hear all the things we can celebrate with our mentees, and grateful for another successful day of mentorship!

Photo Credit: @mariah_julianna_

A Trip To ReUse Depot

Don’t you just hate how furniture and building supplies go into landfills? ReUse Depot, a non-profit organization, prevents this from happening by reselling items that would’ve been tossed away (https://reusedepot.org). On day 3 of learning photography, we took a trip to ReUse Depot for the second time. Our mentees got to meet the store cats, look around at all the amazing antiques, and on top of that they got to photograph all of it! Its was an amazing adventure! We can’t wait to come back!

We also learned some history at ReUse Depot…the Firetruck (pictured below) was a World war II Firetruck that was then donated to Maywood. At some point between the years 1943-1980’s this very truck was Maywood’s official Firetruck, meaning it was in our Firehouse! How cool is that?!

Sony Film | Day 2

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Wednesday night, we wrapped up filming with Sony! It was so rewarding to get exposure from a large company! For the last day, the mentees created a mock band called 2 Hot In December to create a story for Jake. Mentee Adlemy got some awesome shots for the band cover and everyone had a great time creating. Jake from Sony Alpha captured the excitement with some video for our short film being created by them! We are so proud of our mentees and how far they have come, as well as The Firehouse Dream for all it has accomplished this past year. We are grateful for the opportunities given and for everyone supporting us along the way! A big thank you to Sony Alpha and Jake!