Two weekends. Six days. Hundreds of kids. ACL 2019 is over; we’re all exhausted but happy.
For the second year in a row, Leap of Joy was invited to be a part of ACL Cares, which is Austin City Limits’ give-back program. It highlights select non-profits, allowing them to get their name out to like-minded musical enthusiasts! Not only did we have a booth at Austin Kiddie Limits this year, we were also invited to have a demonstration on the new Bonus Tracks stage, where our very own Clay Moore held an all-ages creative dance class on the Friday of Weekend 1!
Austin Kiddie Limits is a special, family-friendly section of the festival, boasting a stage of kid-centric music (even the adults–myself included–were all bopping around to Bears & Lions), changing stations, and tons of activities for the kids. My personal favorite, the Hip Hop House Party station, was right near our booth; when Bears & Lions wasn’t playing, we got to listen to kids hip-hopping about all sorts of wacky things, which completely made my day.
Each child got a passport to get stamped as they completed each activity. Leap of Joy was the crafting table, and we had such a good time meeting the kids as they came to create and get their passports stamped! Our crafting activity this year was making jingle shakers. We were amazed at how many creations could be made just with Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and bells! From bracelets to jingle sticks to pipe cleaner people, the kids that visited us created some really interesting shakers. Leap of Joy is all about bringing creativity to children, and these kids delivered. It was wonderful to see–and to create along with them!
Our medium: Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and bells. It was incredible what the kids created using these few supplies!
Our Operations Manager, Jessica, wrangles some bells onto a pipe cleaner during Weekend 1.
Crafting at the tables outside our booth.
Here’s a few photos of some of the creations we saw over both weekends:
We were also giving away Leap of Joy bracelets, which were a hit with the kiddos!
It was such a blast hanging out with all of our visitors! We met a ton of people and some really great conversations with parents about who we are and what we do. With incredibly talented musicians playing in the background, we jingled our way through one very hot weekend and one kind-of-cold-and-rainy weekend and loved every minute of it. We sincerely hope that in 2020 Austin City Limits will invite us back for another memorable two weeks!
