Artaware's Blog

http://camdenkroc.salvationarmy.org/CamdenKroc/CamdenKrocNewsLetter_Pfeiffer

Passion for Arts Drives Pfeiffer

In December 2014, Barbara Pfeiffer became a bell ringer and rang the bell at the Walmart shopping center in Audubon. She hasn’t stopped serving The Salvation Army since.

Pfeiffer, who officially registered as a volunteer in March of 2015, has contributed over 210 hours of service, serving as a Kroc Ambassador giving tours, working at the Welcome Desk, the library, instructing at summer camp and teaching Art in Kroc Kids.

For Pfeiffer, the dedication to volunteering comes from her desire to see people come together.

“I’ve lived in Camden for 30 years and I knew that this was going to be a place that was going to bring people together,” said Pfeiffer. “I have found that everybody is in their own little section in Camden and this was a place that could bring them together.”

Barbara got to witness this first hand when she checked members into the building.

“It’s just a wonderful look at life from this wonderful facility,” she said. “When I was at the Welcome Desk I loved seeing all those people come through the doors, from the suburbs and from Camden City.”

While Pfeiffer has helped wherever she has been needed, her true passion has always been art. A retired teacher, Pfeiffer has seen what great things children can do when given the chance to be creative.

“I think every child should be able to express themselves,” Barbara said.

Pfeiffer continues to work with Kroc Kids and is encouraging others to join in and help a program that has greatly expanded over the last two months.

“I have worked at afterschool programs throughout Camden City and sometimes there is no discipline and there is nothing very structured about it,” she said. “Here [After School Learning Center Coordinator Hillary Jones] does a good job of structuring it. She can’t do it all by herself, so she needs volunteers. If people like working with kids, this is a wonderful opportunity because there are so many kids and there is such good structure within The Salvation Army.”

By Liseidy, 2nd Grader

Look at the discipline and creativity this second grader used in making her landscape. Teacher, Jeffrey Phillips, instructed his classes (20 per class, 100 students total at Leap Academy) to use markers to simulate the stitches (and whatever they wished – sun, clouds, stars, rainbows, etc.) used in sewn Chilean-fabric artwork. He had them use different colors and shapes of construction paper to create perspective.

Check out  http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?project=1123805 to see all the masterpieces done by students in Liseidy’s class, as well as the work done by other 2nd grade classes. Their collages are all one-of-a-kind, based the originality of each student.

I’m the lucky person who takes photos of artwork initiated by Jeff to post on Artsonia, the world’s largest online kids’ art museum.

No words necessary – this is Art Aware’s message…

I might do a write-in ballot for the 2016 presidential election for a man who wouldn’t want the job but has the experience to do it right.

He knows how to manage a budget and spent twenty years writing a biography of a Michigan senator-turned international diplomat which the University of Chicago Press will publish in 2017.

He recently was in the news because he helped an eighty-six year old woman get home who had locked the keys in her car, then mixed up the last two digits of the phone number unable to reach her daughter for help.

He’s in a position of authority that serves millions of people their basic human needs and serves their spiritual needs through the arts. He touches individuals and the multitudes.

I am one of those individuals – at seventy-seven years old, who may soon unintentionally lock her keys in the car and reach out to a caring person for help.  I have confidence someone will be there

because of this man for whom I’ll do a write-in ballot. His leadership extends across the country and, for-all-I-know, around the world. He has authority and influence that hasn’t “gone to his head.”

I live in a city, Camden, N.J., that needs enlightened leadership. In 2015 President Obama visited us. He raised hopes for the future, appearing in a Salvation Army Center that was funded  by Joan Kroc in 2003.

In 2015, the Grand Rapids Kroc Center and Salvation Army were supported by this man for whom I’m submitting a write-in ballot. He has the gentle touch for us commoners and the smarts for the elites.

He knows that isolationism by country, by economic status, by race, by education, by religion, will not work for a sustainable world, for individuals or for the multitudes.

I know the next POTUS will not be elected by write-in ballots. But we still have time, perhaps through social media to call out those saints – and sinners – so that those us “in between” can make a difference.