This past weekend, Saturday, May 12, 2012, Paint-A-Thon took part in an event organized by the Mayor's Youth Task Force - Markham Expo. It was a youth festival aimed to bring all the youth and culture in Markham together over 2 days. Luckily for us, the weather was absolutely perfect to be outdoors! A mural was set up by the Paint-A-Thon team and all the guests who walked by stopped to leave their mark. We are glad to see that there are so many passionate artists in our community. Check out how our mural looked by the end of the day!

Hello all you creative minds!

Summer’s around the corner and it’s still cold and rainy. But don’t worry we’re certain that during Paint-A-Thon the weather will be beautiful and sunny to welcome our participants. In addition, the organizers will do their usual Sun Dance, so we’re all good!

This year, we are also excited to announce our new and creative ideas for Paint-A-Thon. Why confine yourself to paintbrushes when there are many ways to paint?

Check this out!

This cute and innovative art is titled “Straw Painting Monsters” by lindsay_cliff. It's done by dripping a little watercolours on a piece of paper, then a straw is used to blow the dripped colours so the paint spreads out. It's creative yet simple and lots of fun!

[Source: http://pinterest.com/pin/140878294563838026/]

For more information on how to Straw Paint, feel free to visit: http://www.ehow.com/how_4422292_make-straw-painting-kids.html

Let your creativity reign free! That’s right. Paint-A-Thon is open to any painting instrument you wish to use as long as it does not cause a safety hazard. Why not try it out? Join us at Paint-A-Thon on July 14^th to blow off some creativity steam.

Tweet us with hashtag #paintathon or visit us at www.paintathon or https://www.facebook.com/paintathon

Be sure to check us out for more fun painting ideas in the future!

Hello everybody!

Spring is here and Paint-A-Thon team is moving forward with our agendas!

During Christmas and New Years, we had great opportunities to visit various high schools to promote Paint-A-Thon and the feedback we received was invaluable. We got to see the different passion high school students have and their commitment levels.

But we are also searching for young professionals to partake in this painting extravaganza. As a community arts event, Paint-A-Thon is a great opportunity to foster team building and character development. Don't have the artistic skills? Well, don't worry! Paint-A-Thon is a fun event where friends can get together to socialize and engage in some fun activities on a summer day!

The Paint-A-Thon team is open to your feedback, so if you have any suggestions, our Outreach lead, Jutara, would love to hear them! She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Paint-A-Thon may be months away but nonetheless, the team is super excited and we’re already getting ready to go! Power Unit Youth Organization (PUYO) has chosen the official beneficiary for our events in 2012. This year, the funds raised through this initiative will go towards the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Canada. This organization aims to grant the wishes of children who suffer from life threatening medical conditions, and to enrich their lives with hope, strength and joy.

The first Make-A-Wish Canadian chapter was established in B.C. in 1983 after Nigel Brown and Robb Lucy heard about the launch of Make-A-Wish in the United States. At the time, a 13 year old girl named Debbie was suffering from Leukemia and her only wish was to visit her grandparents in Germany. In order to grant her wish, Nigel paid for Debbie’s trip with his personal credit card. Although she was sick, she had a wonderful time re-connecting with her family in Germany.

With the heart-warming completing of their first wish, the small group of friends recruited more friends and soon the first chapter of Make-A-Wish in Canada was off and running. To date, there have been 4,390 wishes granted to children all across the country. With your help, PUYO anticipates granting many more wishes to children across Canada.

We said last time that we weren’t staying still - the Paint-A-Thon team has already started planning for next year! And we are as pumped up as ever!

But before that, we would like to extend our gratitude to Free The Children (FTC) for partnering up with us as our official beneficiary this year. FTC is an organization that aims to help Third World countries break from poverty and exploitation by bringing quality education to all children, local and international.

As promised, a portion of Paint-A-Thon’s proceeds are going directly to the Kenya project, in regards to educational programming, alternative income projects, water and sanitation projects, and many more. It was such an honour to have collaborated with FTC, an organization who shares a similar vision and passion as Power Unit Youth Organization (PUYO); to empower youth engagement and commitment to give back to the community. We would like to offer a big thank you to FTC.

Soon after Paint-A-Thon has come to an end, our team members met up for numerous meetings and get-togethers to discuss about how the event turned out, what went well and what needed improvements. So don’t forget to keep up with us as we are sure to bring you guys more exciting and new events!

FTC Blog: http://www.freethechildren.com/blog/2011/09/paint-a-thon.php