Tipi Time at the Parks
In the spring of 2008 I started working as a recreation leader at a park in Alameda called Leydecker. I had made a prototype from my previous attempt at summer camp and was ready to test it out. What better way than to see how it worked with kids.
The first tipi was made from colored bedsheets and pillowdcases that matched and we spread it out on the basketball court and had the kids paint it. They put handprints on the fabric in different colors and made it unique to their park. It dried overnight and the next day we arrived on the scene. We took the poles I had sawed off the family car and set them on the lawn. We tied a shoelace through the poles and tied on our new tipi. It took all of us working together to put it up and then we stood back in amazement of what we had made. It was big enough to captivate anyone under 17 and tall enough to create magic for those over 20.
We soon developed games to go with the tipis and they became a big hit. As soon as I pulled my car to a stop, the kids would run down and begin untying the poles and unloading the canvas. Soon I made a second tipt to go with the first and over the next weekends through spring I sewed a total of five. They were colorful and transformed the land.