For the first time this summer, the Estevan campus of the Southeast College gave the younger kids a chance to have a taste of the professional world. The summer camps that ran throughout July and August gave children exposure to different career paths and taught many new skills, including advertising.
Seven participants of the last camp of this summer, which was called Performing Arts Week, had a chance to try their talents in the Estevan Mercury and SE College Back to School promotion, and create real adds for businesses of their choice.
“The kids were able to pick the ad they wanted to start with. Many chose businesses their parents or grandparents work at,” explained Janay Marr, summer camp co-ordinator.
It wasn’t that easy of a job and some of the young ad designers were a bit frustrated in the beginning.
“When we brought it up the kids seemed quite confused and unsure,” said Marr. “As a group, we read through each ad and brainstormed ideas. Together we drew our ideas on board and the kids would choose what to draw.”
They also discussed the Estevan community and different businesses that kids are surrounded by.
Then students could choose from markers, crayons and pencil crayons for their ads. Most of them used pencils first and then coloured their pictures in.
“The kids enjoyed creating advertisements. Once we could make connections to the businesses the kids had a lot of fun with it,” said Marr.
She noted that when doing it again, she would give children more area to work with.
“The kids needed to have a larger drawing area. On some advertisements there was not much space to draw or create a descriptive picture,” said Marr.
But all ads turned out to be really unique and personal.
All kids’ creations can be found on the pages of the Mercury.
