Welcome Project Update

Unfortunately my (Alli) computer died last week and I have been unable to do much, including posting to the blog. The good news is that I got a brand new hard drive and I had just done a back-up. So everything is back to normal! I wanted to put a few photos from the Welcome Project up for you to see. We handed out almost 1,000 "Welcome back to Selly Oak" gifts to students during the first week of the term. The gift included a jute bag, cup, and flyer with upcoming Canvas events. We all had a really great time and met lots of new students!

Canvas jute bag, Canvas cup, Canvas flyer

During the first two weeks of the new term, Canvas did free tea, coffee, and donuts in front of one of the entrances to campus. We have done free tea and coffee in the past in front of the old Canvas house, but this year we decided to branch out. So we set up shop at 8:00 am each morning and had a really fun time. In the photo below, you can see there is a lot of the construction behind us. That is a new road going through Selly Oak and won't be done for a while. Thankfully, it did not rain during our two weeks of free tea and coffee, but it was quite cold. We met lots of students on the way to lectures or the library to study!

Alli, Anton, and Caleb

Canvas did a variety of events during the first two weeks of the term. We hosted an Open Mic Night at a local student hang-out called Urban Village. We had our kick-off party at TC's which was a great success. We served chili and the Canvas band played three sets of amazing music. And lastly, we had a BBQ in Selly Park and played American Football. The BBQ was on one of the last nice days before it got really cold! 

Alli, Keziah, and Rob getting ready to serve dinner at the kick-off party at TC's.

The Canvas band practicing before the kick-off party started. 

Thank you to those of you who gave to the third Canvas Welcome Project! It was a great success and we really appreciate your generosity! The term is in full swing now. We have a lot of fun and exciting things planned for the next few weeks so stay tuned...

New Doors, New Lighting

Two projects that needed work at Canvas were new lighting and a new set of doors. The florescent lighting was quite ugly and didn't even provide much light. And the doors are huge and heavy and block out all natural light in the main room. Here are some before photos:

The old doors.

The old florescent lighting.

Recessed lighting was chosen for the two rooms downstairs, as they are the safest and least expensive option. They really help to brighten up the room. We also had to have some smoke detectors and emergency lighting installed. The metal doors were painted blue and new patio-style doors were installed just inside the metal doors. 

Pretty new lighting.

The new door frame.

New patio doors!

We had a paint day at Canvas where students and alumni came and helped us paint the house, including the metal doors. Photos from our Canvas paint day will be in the next post!