Terrapin Hollow Educational Foundation
The work we do at Terrapin Hollow Educational Foundation can not happen without the charitable donations from community members like you.
Thank you.
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The Tracy Campbell Children's Literacy Project Has Come to an End.
As our family enters its next stage of Life, in which we are moving to Bangor, Maine, we have decided to close down the Tracy Campbell Children's Literacy Project. This program hosted creative writing workshops with multiple schools and homeschool groups to publish the creative works of almost 300 children. It has been a delight to work with so many talented writers.
As a registered non-profit, Terrapin Hollow Educational Foundation is required to donate unused funds to other programs, schools or charitable organizations. We will be making an announcement next week as to where we will be directing the remainder funds for the writing program.
To everyone who contributed their time or money to support this one of a kind program, we sincerely thank you. Your efforts literally gave hundreds of children a gift that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
Sincerely,
The Newby Family
P. S., the Forest Newby Memorial Space Camp Scholarship will continue to operate. For information on that program, click here.
As some of you may know, we are still dealing with the loss of our son, Forest, who died two years ago. With this in mind, we are taking much needed family time this year. Unfortunately, this means that we will not be publishing any of the Tracy Campbell Children's Literature Anthology books this year. I apologize to the students who may have been looking forward to this, but we do hope to discover more young authors next year.
Thank you for your continued support.
Kaleidoscopes has been completed!
This is the second anthology produced this year, with 63 fifth grade students from Leslie Intermediate School. This is also the eighth volume in the Tracy Campbell Children's Anthology series, which in total has published the creative works of more than 300 local students!
Help these young authors celebrate their growing literary skills by reading their stories and congratulating them on the work well done. While each child has received a free copy of the book their work appears in, additional copies are always for sale through Amazon.com (click here), with all proceeds going directly back into the Anthology Program.
Gazing Skyward is Out!
This year, we took on additional schools to produce two books. Working with the seventh and eighth graders of Bruno-Pyatt School, and the fifth graders of St. Joe School, we produced a book containing 25 exciting stories.
Each participating child received a free copy of their book; complementary copies were gifted to the local library, the school library, the principals and the teachers who assisted. Additional copies may be purchased from Amazon (click here.)
The Children's Anthology series is now The Tracy Campbell Children's Anthology series.
The veteran teacher Tracy Campbell passed away in 2017, but she will live in the hearts of the thousands of students she touched in her 27 year career. My son, Forest, was one of her students. She was instrumental in getting him into the Gifted and Talented Program at Searcy County School District. She was also willing to give the Children's Anthology Program a try when it was in its infancy. She believed in giving children ownership of their blossoming skillsets. To honor her contributions to learning and her dedication to her craft, we have renamed the Children's Anthology Program in her memory.
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Because Tracy Campbell believed in this program, this year's installment--the sixth in the series--will raise the number of children we have published to more than 250.
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Thank you, Tracy. And thank you for everyone who has supported this program throughout the years.
The books are in! Check out the video below.
The Stories have been Written!
After meeting with the students of the home school and the public school classes four times each (sixteen sessions in all), the children's fiction has been written and many of them have conducted a first pass-through edit.
Now comes the process of editing and laying out two separate anthologies. As fun as it would be to incorporate the kids' input in this process, this is done in house. In about two months' time, these kids will be holding shining copies of the books they helped write.
Thanks for everyone who supported this program. The children are very grateful.
Character Creation is in Full Swing
Over the last week, our students took on the challenge of creating believable characters. We have everything from kids surviving the Great Depression to talking wolves to griffins hunting in fantastic wild lands. These kids have put a lot of effort into their creations, promising exciting stories to fill our anthologies this year.
As a personal note, it's always interesting to see how different people go about doing the same task. With 81 students participating, we're seeing various strategic approaches to fleshing out a character. Some kids start out with a drawing, others with a notion based off their favorite characters from beloved stories. Some kids labor over every detail, while others hastily write paragraph after paragraph, their pencils barely keeping pace with their thoughts.
We designed the course to try and work with all the different learning styles. Even now, we're learning how to better present the material. Every time I teach this class, I walk away thinking about how I can make certain points a little clearer. It's a learning experience for us all!
Stay tuned for more updates.
The Writing Project has Begun!
On Monday, we met with 81 children from Leslie Intermediate Elementary and a local home school group, teaching them how to create great protagonists. The kids had fun, and a lot of great ideas were tossed around. We'll meet with the kids again next week and get them started on crafting plots. Stay tuned for updates on this incredible project.
(The portrait to the left is of the Good Queen, an aid used in the classroom to illustrate fully developed characters.)
We're launching our 2017 Children's Anthology Program, and will showcase the works of 60 children in 2 professionally bound volumes. This year, we'll again be working with 5th graders and a homeschool group. This marks our fourth year helping children learn about complex problem solving, analytical thinking and behavioral dynamics through creative writing. This is an exciting program that the community has really rallied behind. Get in on the action, help us make this possible. Check out our Kickstarter.com fundraising campaign to see what your donations can get. Plus, all sponsors are eligible to receive a tax-deductible receipt for their help.
Thanks. And as an added bit of awesome, the local elementary school will be hosting a year-long creative writing contest between grades. We will be publishing a third book containing the top 20 stories they gathered up. As in our Anthology Program, each showcased child will receive a copy of their book at no cost.
The 2016 Children's Anthology of Fiction is Finally Available!
The stories are in. 49 5th graders from Searcy County, Arkansas are now published authors. The kids were super excited to get their books and find their stories. As Mrs. Campbell put it, this was one of the first times all year every single one of her students was excited to sit down and open a book. Though they didn't stay seated long--these kids were soon up again, swapping autographs and showing their best friends that their names were in print.
This project couldn't have been possible without the help of so many generous people. A special thanks goes out to our sponsors:
Amber and Ryan Flamand
Lorelei and Jay Crockett
Daniel Albernaz
Noam Osband
Niki and Brennan de Soto
Sharon Durgin
and the creative folks at ToyPeace and Novel Suite
Again, thank you everyone! We look forward to running this project again next year.
Copies of this anthology can be purchased through Amazon via this link (to be updated). All proceeds go to fund future editions of the Children's Anthology. Thank you.
It Has Begun!
On Wednesday, we taught 50 students about analyzing their favorite characters, and set them on the path to creating their own characters for the upcoming Anthology Project. There was a lot of great discussions, laughter, and a bunch of young minds laying the foundation for some great stories. For a glimpse of how we do this, check out the blog link here.
We're Launching our 2015 Fundraiser for the 2016 Children's Literacy Project.
This year, we'll be working with 50 fifth grade authors, publishing their works in our upcoming anthology. This holiday season, help give the kids a gift that will foster vital skills and nurture a lifetime love of learning. Go to our campaign page at Kickstarter (link goes here) for the details.
Thank you for your support.
The Children's Anthology Project has at last come to an end! With contributions from 32 seventh grade authors, Moonbeams and Maybes is a unique way of inspiring a lifelong love of reading and writing. Join us in congratulating these young authors in this accomplishment. By celebrating what they have done here, we're telling them that reading is more than something we do simply because it is required of us. And when a child learns to love what they can accomplish through their blossoming literacy skills, they do more than just enrich their lives. They literally improve their chances of success in it.
A great way to show your support for your child's accomplishment is to give copies of this anthology as gifts to friends and family members. Not only will it show how proud you are of what they've done, but this simple purchase will help fund future Children's Anthology Projects. Copies of this book can be purchased through Amazon.com (link will be activated once book is live through Amazon) or through by contacting us directly at 501.253.5626, or at estevennewby @ gmail.com.
We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors, without whose support this project would not have been possible. Thank You.
Lorelei and Jay Crockett
Amber and Ryan Flamand
Kat Vander Wende
Tim Massey
Noam Osband
Cheri Charleville
Stewart Fuell
Roger and Peggy Stafford
Lee Razor
Janice Vigh
Thank you all sincerely.
CHILDREN'S ANTHOLOGY UPDATE
The anthology project we're doing with the Searcy County School District has had a few interesting turns in it. We've had to shift our project focus and audience, but the outcome is even more exciting.
Instead of publishing the fictional works of twenty 8th graders, we'll be publishing the poetic works of thirty-two 7th graders! The poems should be in to us by the end of next week, and we'll begin layout and editing immediately. The artist we're commissioning to paint the cover has already been notified. Our goal is still to get these kids their books by the end of the year.
Current Events
I'm a paragraph. Click once to begin entering youWe're excited to announce that we'll be helping an 8th grade English class here in Searcy County become published authors in an upcoming anthology of short fiction. Not only does this unique opportunity give the children something they'll be proud to share with their friends and families, it communicates to them that literacy skills--a mastery of which are vital for meaningful employment in the 21st century--are worth so much more than just a grade.
We're launching our Kickstarter campaign to fund the publishing of the anthology, and hope you'll consider making a donation. You can check out campaign here: Go to Campaign (Page will open in a new window.)
Terrapin Hollow Press is now Terrapin Hollow Educational Foundation. We're registered as a non-profit corporation in the state of Arkansas, and are currently processing the monstrously large volume of paperwork necessary to become an official 501(3)c.
Also, we should note, we are no longer an LLC.r own content. You can change my font, size, line height, color and more by highlighting part of me and selecting the options from the toolbar.