The remainder of June is going to find, "The Art Kids of San Diego County," extremely busy. Saturday the 15th of June they will be at the Bayside Park in Chula Vista helping with the 41st Hobie Classic. The kids will be creating, painting and then flying their paper airplanes in the first annual paper airplane competition. The official name given to this event that happens to coincide with the annual Hobie Cat Classic is The Padilla Paper airplane competition. The airplanes will be judged on three areas. Design, artistic flair and of course flight. Winners will receive gift certificates to Blick's Art Supplies in Little Italy.
The kids are also working on utility boxes for the city of Bonita. Their present box is one of the old fire station with a steam fire engine in front of it. They will be working on a number of utility boxes for the city to help beautify the area. The kids no longer do utility boxes in Imperial Beach because the B.I.D. did not like the ones they recently did and claimed the kids asked too much for their work.
Then at the end of the month, The Art kids have been asked to help with the one day Sandcastle event, "Sun and Sea." They will be providing a paint and take event which includes three various designs for kids to paint and then take their work home. The canvas has been cut to the design of, "The Sun, a Mini Surf Board and a Tiki mask. Last year at a similar event in Imperial Beach, "The Art Kids," worked with over 600 kids.
Of course The Kids are working on the northside of Bibbey's Shell Shop creating a new mural for the summer season. It is entitled, "Sea and Space," and one will takes hours just finding all the detail and wonderful pieces the Kids have put into the mural.
The Art Kids still meet once a week but in Chula Vista where they are glady welcomed and appreciated. They have been helping the city with their artistic support and are working on projects to beautify the city. Plus The Art Kids donated over 1,000 canvases for various projects throughout the City of Chula Vista. The kids love our new location and the support from the mayor and city council. The organization left Imperial Beach last year after being harassed by the city and kicked out of the parks with no justifiable reason. The director stated that there is no more room for the kids in Imperial Beach as neither the mayor nor anyone from the city council did anythng to relieve the situation. The final decision based on a false complaint which was never verified by the city nor investigated was the kids who served Imperial Beach for over nine years were reduced from using 6 tables at the pier plaza to 4 tables. The director proved how stupid the complaint was when he and the group photographer went to the site and took a photo of the plaza at 11:00 AM on a beautiful Saturday morning. The Photo showed that there was exactly Zero people sitting at the tables. Yet, the false complaint stated that the kids were taking up too much room.
It took the city ten weeks to make their decision based on former code enforcer, David Garcias, complaint. Not only did he ban the kids from that park but banned them from any public park in Imperial Beach. He had no authority to do such a terrible thing. Yet, the city council and mayor did nothing to come to the aid of the kids. This was the way the city thanked the kids for all the free events that the kids did for the city, the chamber and the B.I.D.
The Kids come to Imperial Beach once in a while to help with a few events, but they will never have anything to do with anything associated with the city directly. The kids have a continuous display of art at the Chula Vista Court House, they assist with the Chula Vista Pow-Wow, They were incredibly successful at' "The Day of the Child," Their work at the annual open house for the Southhwestern College aquatic center was indeed appreciated, Working with the Chinese School in La Jolla was considered very successful and the program has grown to over 30 students. The kids will have their own art show in November at the Bonita Museum and Cultural Center. The kids will be helping the center by doing an art event once a month at the center. Bringing art to the Southbay area is one of our goals. I am just sorry that Imperal Beach isn't one of the area that we will be helping. We tried for over nine years and, well, we have better things to do then to waste anymore time with a city whose mayor spends more time in a bar exercising his elbow than to help those people whose goal it is to make the southland area a beautiful place to visit.
We are in a better location now and in a position where the people truly enjoy what the kids are doing. The Kids will be teaching this summer in the Marina area to adults that wish to learn art. Kids teaching adults, maybe Imperial Beach needs some kids in their local govenment, my mistake maybe they already have some in there now and my apologizes to any kid out there. I did not want to reduce you to the Imperial Beach city council and mayor's office.
