The lights are finally back on at Taija Keyes’ apartment in the Fountain Park neighborhood in north St. Louis.
Keyes and four of her five children were home on May 16 when a powerful tornado blew through the neighborhood, reducing many of the buildings to piles of bricks and rubble. She remembers fighting against powerful winds to close the front door to her apartment while instructing her children to take shelter in the bathtub.
It’s a moment she’ll never forget.
“It was very devastating for me and my family,” Keyes said. “It’s something I’ve never experienced in my 40 years of life.”
Almost three weeks after the storm, she decided to get her kids out of the apartment and to the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in Midtown, which is offering a free summer camp for families impacted by the tornado.
From 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Wednesday through June, the camp will offer activities led by artists and museum staff, a free meal and a space for parents and caretakers to catch their breath.
Michelle Dezember, director of learning and engagement, said CAM decided to open a summer camp to help fill a gap for families that may have lost access to child care or summer activities after the storm.
“Having spaces where you can have creative expression and you can have an emotionally healthy place to be in touch with yourself allows you to receive and also take care of those physical and more complex needs that we have as humans,” Dezember said.
Every week, there will be a different set of workshops led by different artists.
St. Louis-based artist Marley Billie D helped Cruz, a second grader, use flowers and plants to decorate his drawing of a bear.
“These are still sprouting! Yeah!” he said.
Billie D wanted to make sure the kids had a way to take a step back from the destruction left by the storm.
“I think it’s all about making sure that you can still see life … especially with the tornadoes and everything that happened,” Billie D said. “It’s hard to see that beauty, and so I feel like flowers bring that back.”
CAM encourages families to check out the camp schedule for the remainder of the month.
