Making Awesome Happen, $1,000 At A Time 
How do we ensure Newmarket continues to be the best place to live and work in Canada? It starts with Awesome ideas. Enter the Awesome Foundation Newmarket, a group that provides monthly hassle-free micro grants to help bring those ideas to life.
Rather than a charity, the Awesome Foundation is like a giving circle. Ten trustees give $100 of their own money each month to help an individual or group implement a great idea that helps people locally. At the Awesome Foundation Newmarket, we focus on ideas that benefit youth in Newmarket.
We accept idea submissions from people of any age and with a variety of ideas. No idea is too small, and those that promote fun are as important as those with more serious focus. APPLY NOW
Latest Awesome Foundation Newmarket Recipient: July 2019
Congratulations to the Mindfulness and Outdoor Learning program—our latest Awesome grant recipient. The summer-long camp program provides kids from 4–12 years of age with the opportunity to immerse themselves in nature, engage in unstructured and supervised risky play, and further develop life skills.
During week-long sessions, kids experience forest school and learn hands-on about their environment. Daily mindfulness practice is incorporated through sit spots, sensory walks, sound mapping and various other activities. The aim is to help children develop an understanding of themselves and their emotions while improving self-regulation skills, reducing anxiety and building confidence and self-esteem, says program co-founder Nicole Richmond, a Registered E.C.E with a Bachelors of Child Development who is nearing accreditation as a Forest School Practitioner with Child and Nature Alliance Canada. “Providing young children with opportunities to learn in nature, take risks and lead their learning is essential in developing resiliency, problem-solving skills, self-awareness,” she says. “Mindfulness activities outdoors will strengthen children’s observation skills using their senses and investigating the natural world.” The camps run out of The Academy on Main Street.
Photo: Nicole Richmond (middle) with Awesome Trustees Tracy Macgregor and Diane Farmer.
