Fall is in the air!
View this email in your browser

Upcoming Events

 

STEAM Super Friends: Music Fundraiser

When: Friday, November 7th, 5-10pm
Where: Lucky Lab, 1945 NW Quimby St, Portland, OR 97209
Tickets: at the door and online

What: Music by The Beauty
Come jam and learn about STEM works in Oregon. Organized by the OR4STEM Foundation, 100% of the funds raised will benefit us, Pixel Arts and cool allies like ChickTech, Abbey Arts, iUrbanTeen, Code Oregon, and the Leadership & Entrepreneurship Public Charter High School.
Purchase TicketsFacebook Event Link

GirlFest

We need you to support more girls and women in technology fields! Pixel Arts is excited to work with Girl Scouts of Oregon & SW Washington to provide a booth and two programming camps at GirlFest 2014! For more information about GirlFest, visit http://www.girlscoutsosw.org/girlfest.

Saturday, November 15, 2014, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Portland Expo Center
2060 North Marine Dr.
Portland, OR 97217

Digital Storymaking with Twine Games, 10:30-12:30

Scribble, draw, and write your imagination into an online adventure! Our workshop will help you and your friends create an interactive game together with Twine, a kind of “choose-your-own-adventure” software. The tools are simple and fun.  Appropriate for Grades 5-8.

Creative Play with Games and Scratch, 12:30-2:30

Making creative,fun games to play on computers is easy with Scratch. Our workshop will help you and your friends make games from your imagination. Learn how simple and fun coding is, make your own art and characters, and see what your game can do! Appropriate for grades 5-9.

Success in Forrest Grove and with ChickTech


Assessment and mentor volunteer Amy VanderZanden worked with Pacific University’s civic engagement program to host a board game tournament. In addition to the fundraiser, she has raised school supplies donation to help with our free camps! Rainy Day Games also joined in the event to provide prizes and games to play. Huge thanks to all who joined and to Amy and Rainy Day for their initiative and support!

Pixel Arts is working to support youth groups in their learning communities, including women in technology. This past month we collaborated with ChickTech, a non-profit dedicated to providing fun and hands-on opportunities for girls and women to get engaged with technology.


Hosted at PSU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, 12 volunteers mentored a mini-camp in game programming, art, animation, and sound production. The 14 attending young women had a wonderful time, giving Pixel Arts a high rating of 4.5 out of 5 and effusively thanking our mentors for their generosity, professionalism, and genuine enthusiasm. Pixel Arts plans for future collaboration with ChickTech, so expect more news soon!

Ms. Pacman and Pixel Arts at the PRGE

In addition to seeing the Tetris World Championship Tournament, a massive Megacade, and vendors of all trades, the Portland Retro Gaming Expo worked with Pixel Arts this year to provide a massive exposure and fundraising opportunity! We ran a drawing for a cocktail-style Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine that was donated to us in order to raise over $1,500 in ticket sales! 



PRGE also provided spotlight to Pixel Arts to speak about our mission and camps during the Saturday night auction, where participants were encouraged to donate a portion of their sales to build our resources in supplies, transportation, food, and space when working underserved areas.A mega thanks is in order for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo! Find out more about the organization here: http://retrogamingexpo.com/

Read more about the PRGE event on Will's Patreon page!

The Gift of Volunteering

Our mission to support under served and underserved youth is expanding quickly. In addition to SEI, we are now at Open Meadow Middle School. Last month, we also hosted a Worlds in Play mini-camp for 14 of ChickTech's girls. The girls had a wonderful time and rated Pixel Arts highly on a scale of 4.5 out of 5. They effusively thanked our mentors for their generosity, professionalism, and genuine enthusiasm.  

Our thanks this month to:

Jon Sonenson
Pat Kemp
Megan Stevens
Leanne Thng
Yori Kvitchko
Alex Merritt
Justin Pando
Gaby Madrid Valero
Eli Campbell
Aubrey Hall
Judith Boothby
Tom Fite
Jonathan Minnamon
Aubrey Hall

On the lookout for meeting space!

Both Pixel Arts and our allies in the Portland Indie Game Squad are on the lookout for free or inexpensive meeting spaces for events like meetups, open houses, camps, game tournaments, or game jams. If you know of a space that would be interested in hosting gatherings of 25 people or more, please contact Will at Will@GameEducationPDX.com.

Volunteer Ops

Get Engaged, Help Kids, Invigorate Your Life


As always, we will make it easy for you to plug in and plug out to fit your schedules! Contact Will or Jeffrey.
 
Wanted: Mentors, Curriculum Designers,
Minions, and Coordinators

 
Now through December, Weds 10-11am, Open Meadow School

An elective game camp class running Wednesdays from 10am-11am. We are currently planning to reach two different groups of students by providing programming through multiple semesters, running through December (minus holidays and school in-service days).

October 14th Start, Tues & Thurs, 5-6pm, Self Enhancement, Inc.
After-School Program (ASP) classes running Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning October 14th for 9-10 weeks. Mentors are welcome to drop in and out as necessary, but we’re looking for individuals to commit to four sessions or more. 
 
Wanted: Minions, Makers, Curriculum Designers
 
Nov 15th, 10am-4pm, The GirlScout's GirlFest 
Meet over 3500 Girl Scouts and help them earn a badge in game design. We are hosting two 2-hour workshops, one on digital story and art with Twine and one in games and programming with Scratch. We also will host a booth the entire time with game design kits. We need between 8-12 volunteers.

 
Wanted: Youth Facilitators, Financial Advisors,
Marketing, and Sponsor Outreach


October 2013-January 2014, “Gods and Heroes” Planning, Portland Art Museum
From June to September 2015, the Portland Art Museum will host Youth Made Games and Apps based on their "Gods and Heroes" exhibit. We are in the planning and outreach phase to coordinate site partners in Portland, Eugene, Bend, Salem and more. Pixel Arts will sponsor $5,000 in awards for youth teams.


Winter, Home Forward Camp and Services Platform
Home Forward is a public housing authority with more than 2500 middle schoolers in East County. We are planning a Winter Camp for their kids and the goal is to create platform for community providers to offer learning opportunities. Help develop the camp or grow the community network to serve kids!

Stay in Contact!

We have new connections for volunteers. 

Facebook group for group wide communication
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1467215666891088/

Gaming Lab for Art & Animation
https://groups.google.com/a/gameeducationpdx.com/forum/#!forum/aa

Gaming Lab for Coding & Programming
https://groups.google.com/a/gameeducationpdx.com/forum/#!forum/cp

Give by shopping!

Last quarter, 5 families donated $35.50 through the Fred Meyer Community Rewards program. To donate your points to Pixel Arts, connect your account online with NPO# 92905.

Share
Tweet
Forward
Copyright © 2014 Pixel Arts, All rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp