Sunrise Gathering: Koa Place
We are grateful for all who made this year’s Sunrise Gathering a magical spot to come together to celebrate bravery and our mission to help youth be valiant. Koa is a Hawaiian word that means courageous, valiant, brave… and this year as a Koa Fund community, we formed a brave place, a Koa Place.
Together, we transformed the Dormouse Theatre into a brave place to engage in and witness stories of bravery – there were epic tales, soaring songs, works of art, courageous experiments, poignant poems, and playful performances.
And in the spaces in between, we played… setting free our bravery into Waves of Light, hanging our dream vessels on the Tree of Dreams, and we writing the tallest tale of duck bravery we could tell.
“Mamá, Daddy… look at the sky!
Just, look at it. Every morning and every evening it does this. And most of the world doesn’t even notice.”
-Koa Voight Suárez
Our featured artist this year was Kim Shaw (she/her), local programs director, educator, illustrator, working art maker, and one of Koa’s art teachers. Her donated Koa Place “art piece, Stay Curious, was created specifically in the spirit of wonder and bravery – and with Koa in mind. Koa was a student of the world who noticed the fine details.”
In keeping with many synchronicities that bubbled up over the preparation and celebration of this Sunrise Gathering, our guest, the young daughter of last year’s featured artist Jason Wesaw, was holding the matching unicorn sticker that meant she would take Stay Curious home.
Big thanks to all of our guests, artists, collaborators, volunteers, in-kind donors, contributors, including:
It’s not too late to contribute to this year’s Sunrise Gathering Koa Place.
Thanks for your support in helping youth #bevaliant.
Please know that 100% of your donation goes to the Koa Fund, and 100% of that goes to our partners, including Kalamazoo Fire, Hope Thru Navigation J.A.B.S. (Justice Against Bullying @School), Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Read and Write Kalamazoo, Young Kings & Queens, Open Roads Bike, OutFront Kalmazoo, Nataly Critchley and MAPEA, Kids Food Basket, and Community Healing Centers (Niñas Del Corazón).
To donate by check, please address it to KZCF with Koa Fund in the memo line, and mail it to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, 402 E. Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49007
The Koa Fund is a component fund of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. We are honored to be part of an organization that supports so much good work.