Capture The Clinton

Hello, future Clinton Capturers!

So, what’s July 29th “Capture the Clinton!” about, anyway? Here’s the “Big Idea”….

There is a brand new stretch of the Clinton River Trail just east of Telegraph and Orchard Lake Road. The Clinton River resumes as a flowing stream from the Beaudette Park Mill Pond dam and heads northeast (downstream) under Orchard Lake Road, meanders through a forested flood plain and under a little road, bends 90 degrees and goes southeast under the trail itself, then makes big looping bend and heads south and east to Crystal Lake. The trail runs beside the river through most of that.

We’re inviting everybody with a pair of eyes and two feet (kids, parents, teens, walkers, artists, non-artists, seniors, etc….) to join us to “Capture the Clinton”.

Here’s the idea: we will hand out (or you can bring your own) markers, pencils, crayons, etc. with a big piece of drawing paper, folded into four squares. We’ll stop at four “Special Places”. We’ll look around, choose something to draw, paint, scrawl, scratch, or dab, and we’ll put it on one side of the folded paper. Anything works! Draw the scene, a leaf, the sky, the person next to them, anything. This will take, maybe 5 minutes, I don’t know, we’ll have to take a test walk.

Then, each person will turn to the person(s) next to them,
1. tell them what they chose to draw
2. Show them their drawing
3. Say what they noticed about what they drew and
4. What they will remember about this place. This might take a minute or two for each person.

Then it’s off to the next site, where we flip/fold the paper to a blank space, sit down, and pick something new to draw.

I’m thinking the 4 sites might be 1. the dam and mill pond 2. the forested flood plain (the river will be low and we can walk on the river bottom 3. the foot bridge over the Clinton 4 . A second bridge over the Clinton and 5. a bonus site - a high view of the river from just off the main trail.

5. Then it’s back across the river on a different street either on the trail or past the Dairy Queen! back to Beaudette Park. There we’ll hang up ALL the sketches and everyone will get to see everyone else’s sketches! We’ll look at everyone’s drawings, talk about what we saw, …

And participants will receive an “Official Card” with a CTC logo that says:
“On July 29th, 2006, I Captured the Clinton!”

And maybe this would become an annual or even a seasonal event.
“Capture the Clinton in Autumn” .. in Spring? Etc

We'll post the sketches on this blog site (with your permission, of course)

So, we invite you to blog us back and tell us how you’d like to be involved: as a participant, a sponsor, a walk leader, a chronicler, photographer, sound recorder, video person, etc. We invite any and all sorts of “alternative-capturers”: photographers, video takers, sound recorders, etc.

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from everyone and seeing you on July 29th so we can all “Capture the Clinton!”

Pat O’Connor

PS. We encourage you to wear shoes and socks, perhaps long pants. Bring a water bottle, and positively bring bug spray, just in case they’re out that morning.