In celebration of our second Summertime Sparks dispatch focusing on The Hero’s Journey, we’re featuring two of our own heroes this week. As you know, the Creative Youth Collective is committed to fostering youth activism through the creative process. And we couldn’t be prouder to support two members of the Collective, Amar and Zoe, as they spend their summer fundraising for causes close to their hearts.
Creative Youth Collective members, Amar and Amruth, both age 12, at our Community Celebration in Palo Alto, CA. May 2024
This is Amar, age 12, sharing an excerpt from his forthcoming novel, The Heist! His story is an inspiring and epic adventure led by a 7th grade boy and his three best friends. Together they go on a mission to reclaim his family’s ancestral artifact. Not only is Amar a Creative Youth Collective scholarship awardee and an incredible writer, he’s also an avid literacy activist! This week, he launched The 2024 Bay Area Bookwork Summer Read-a-Thon as a fundraiser for Project Read Redwood City. You’re invited to participate in Amar’s Read-a-Thon and follow along on his Instagram account, @thebayareabookworm.
And this is Zoe, age 11. Zoe is a member of the Creative Youth Collective, and an outstanding writer with a huge vision for her work. This past spring, she was also awarded a Creative Youth Collective Scholarship, and within 4 short months, she drafted, edited, and published the first book in her series entitled, Farewell. In the future, Zoe dreams of turning Farewell into a TV series and eventually a movie. Her time in the Creative Youth Collective has meant so much to her that she launched a Kickstarter campaign this week to support her second year in our program. She’s determined to write the sequel, and I know she’ll achieve her goal.
Any support you can offer, whether that’s a donation of any amount, a share, like, or follow, would mean the world to Zoe. Everything helps! If you have any questions or want to know more about Farewell or the Creative Youth Collective scholarship, please ask. We’d love to hear from you.
Follow Zoe on Instagram to keep up with her campaign @itszoe.spice.
Thanks for celebrating a few of our heroes with us! Don’t forget to share our Summertime Sparks series with a tween or teen who could use a little help staying in their creative flow this summer. Our second dispatch is all about the Hero’s Journey, and we’ve got plenty of resources to get started. Share your sparks by Friday, July 26th at 11:59 pm PST for a chance to get featured in our next newsletter, and published in our next anthology!