By Barb Brouwer
Contributor
A recent addition to Salmon Arm’s Saturday Farmers’ Market, Amayah Creative owner Kenna Mayes has a talent for making everything old new again.
The 22-year-old buys items from Churches Thrift Shop and gets cast-off jars and other materials from family and friends, giving them charming new life.
“I recreate them and try and give them some character and a new purpose,” she says, noting she inherited her creative abilities from her mom and an aunt. “We have family campouts and she would bring materials for doing crafts. And my mom is really into scrapbooking.”
Mayes laughingly describes how her school assignments were always given a special scrapbook touch and teachers used them as examples to show other students how it could be done.
Mayes, who studied sociology at The King’s University in Edmonton, works in the Family Resource Centre’s Family Development Program and the Sexual Assault Intervention Program (SAIP).
She puts her creative abilities to work in the evening while her husband, Dawson, works on earning his CPA designation.
Read more: In photos: Young vendors join Salmon Arm Downtown Farmers Market for opening day
Read more: Council agrees to extend Salmon Arm Downtown Farmer’s Market through winter
But Amayah Creative is about much more than filling in time.
“Amayah Creative aspires to support families in providing funds for school supplies and school tuition in the rural community of ChanChen Mexico, with the goal of moving forward through faith and spreading hope and love in Christ,” said Mayes.
Mayes was educated in a Christian school and went on missions to Haiti, Jamaica, Belize, U.S., Costa Rica, Cuba and Honduras. She connected to the school in ChenChen through her parents, who own a condo in Mexico and became involved with the community through their church.
“I have a heart for serving others internationally and this is a way I could do that from here,” she said, noting profit from her sales will go to the Mexican school.
Mayes has designs ready for a line of hoodies, quarter zips and tote bags and is hoping to secure materials locally. She also has plans to create an online Etsy store.
In the meantime, Mayes and her Amayah Creative will be back at the Downtown Salmon Arm Farmers’ Market on Aug. 27.
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