News Releases

The Power of Art Inspires USM Professor

November 20, 2007

The proverb that one picture is worth a thousand words rings true when it comes to an assignment USM Professor David Jones gave his Recreation Leadership class this fall.  The service-learning assignment requires his students to help raise money to benefit the International Childhood Enrichment Program (ICEP), an organization that builds playgrounds in war-torn countries. Jones became aware of the ICEP after attending an exhibit of Charles Carpenter’s photographs at USM’s Glickman Family Library last summer.  Jones said the images in the exhibit, “Portraits from the Edge of the World,” were so compelling he felt he had to do something to benefit ICEP’s work in the countries whose inhabitants were depicted in those photographs. ICEP was founded by Carpenter, a research fellow at IDEXX Labs and founder of Historic Map Works in Westbrook. For more information about the exhibit, including links to reproducible images, see http://www.usm.maine.edu/mcr/news/0607releases/cp0.htm.

Jones, an associate professor of recreation and leisure studies, feels raising money to build playgrounds for children who have seen the ravages of war was the perfect service-learning assignment for his students who are learning how to be leaders in recreation and leisure service professions.  Four members of the class met with Carpenter, and the entire class held numerous fundraising events during the semester that included bake sales and selling hot dogs.  Jones’ students recently began working with elementary students at Pond Cove School in Cape Elizabeth to implement fund-raising events for ICEP and to set-up opportunities for Pond Cove student to correspond with children in countries that have benefited from ICEP.

Jones’ class will present the money they raised to ICEP Executive Director Dalinda Carpenter at 11:45 a.m., Wednesday, December 12, in Room G8, Masterson Hall on USM’s Portland campus.

David Jones is available for interviews.  Please contact Bob Caswell or Judie Alessi O’Malley at 780-4200 to reach him.

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