MaVaGe Creations

she saw how much it actually cost and how long it would take to earn, but she kept at it. She knew it was quite an undertaking, and she wanted her family to go as well, so she enlisted the help of her siblings. Somehow she convinced them of how awesome it would be to go to Greece and got them to help collect pennies in parking lots and save up anything they got for birthdays and such. Almost every cent that they get goes into their "Greece Fund." One day she asked when we could go. Mom told her that maybe we could when she was a teenager. In a different conversation on another week, she asked when she would be a teenager. Mom told her that 13 was the first “teen” year. A few weeks later Mom overheard her talking to someone and telling them that we were going for her 13th birthday. Mom said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, we are going to have to talk about that." But she convinced Mom, so that's now the plan is to take a family trip to Greece, in the summer of 2016 as long as the kids (with parental support) can raise most of the money for their dream. At age 7, Valentine now had a deadline and she could see that the money was not being raise quick enough to meet that deadline, so she got more aggressive with looking for coins in the parking lots and dug through other people trash to find cans. After she nearly got hit a couple times, we strongly suggested that she find other ways to raise the money. We tried a few different things to see what she would like and she really got into jewelry making. At this point we still thought that she would refocus onto something else, but she stuck with it. Now that they were making things and really getting a business going, the kids decided to call their business MaVaGe Creations after the first 2 letters of each of their names, pronounced just like the first 2 letters when you say each of their names. Maverick, Valentine and Geneva. And what they sell is what they create. It is not limited to any one item, whatever they create qualifies as a MaVaGe creation. Maverick, Valentine and Geneva go about their business in a very logical way. If any one of them wants to start a new type of creation, they discuss the costs versus the benefits and if it is worth withdrawing some of their Greece Fund to invest in new materials or not. At this point they have depleted much of their fund and spent the money on materials. They have sold some jewelry at garage sales and craft sales and such, but it has been slow going. Last year at this BASIS Carnival, they decided that they really wanted to get a booth this year and sell things and so all three have been working on things for the last year just to sell for this weekend. Just a few months ago Valentine said that she wanted to make dresses also, so she took to the sewing machine and learned some hand stitching as well and managed to make 41 dresses. Every chance that the kids see to make money for their Greece Fund, they take it. In fact, Geneva got a hair beading kit for her birthday just over a month ago, and so after having a sibling discussion, they took some of their Greece Fund money out to invest in more supplies and Geneva (with lots of practice on family members the last few weeks) is doing hair beading. Now Valentine is 9, and Greece is still very much on her mind every day. With less than 4 years to go now, it looks like her passion is unwavering. Even when Maverick said that he'd like to use his share so that he could go to Stanford Math Camp, she convinced him that he could only use some after they hit their goal for Greece. Which is one reason that he started to collaborate his stories and write books. He now has 2 mini books available and several stories on stand-by to create more books if people show interest in these books. So that is where they are thus far. Thank you for your interest and support! http://www.facebook.com/MaVaGeCreations

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