Unwind Wednesdays offers family-friendly fun at Ebb & Flow

Ebb & Flow Fermentations has partnered with the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri to host a new weekly, family-friendly art therapy event.

Unwind Wednesdays will take place on Ebb & Flow's patio, 11 S. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau, from 5 to 8 p.m. each Wednesday through Aug. 11, and will allow attendees to kick back and participate in an optional arts and crafts project.

Ebb & Flow media director Joy Brooker has high hopes for the event.

"I want to open the door for other places to start being more creative with their events," Brooker said. "I don't want just me or Ebb & Flow to benefit from this. I want everybody to benefit from this."

Brooker -- who worked alongside Arts Council director Kelly Downes and Ebb & Flow owner DeWayne Schaaf to come up with the idea -- gives partial credit for the idea of doing arts and crafts to her background as a former camp counselor.

Local band Grand Opening performs during Unwind Wednesdays on April 14 at Ebb & Flow Fermentations in Cape Girardeau.Submitted

"One of the things that we did was use arts and crafts therapy for the kids," Brooker said. "We all found that to be really beneficial. In addition to being something that families can do together in the summer, it's also really beneficial for mental health and wellness."

Brooker has Unwind Wednesdays planned through Aug. 11, and will offer various entertainment options.

"We wanted to do something a little bit more than just having bands," Brooker said. "At Ebb & Flow it's really all about creativity. We have amazing people that work over there too, which is really intuitive, inventive and creative, and I wanted to kind of start doing things that are a little bit different than what other places have been doing to bring more people. I think having more activities than just live music is a good place to start. Initially the summer event series was going to be specifically for adults, but Brooker and the team at Ebb & Flow decided to make it open to children as well.

"It's just kind of become a combined effort to bring something fun and different for people to do over the summer for families, especially since there's not really anything like that," Brooker said. "Downtown, most of the time it's bar hopping and it's kind of hard to find something for families to do together. So I think it's really cool that Ebb & Flow has this space available to do that."

ArtKIDtech, which provides art supplies and classes for kids throughout Southeast Missouri and promotes community mental health and wellness, will receive 10% of the proceeds from this event series.

Bottle painting was last week's Unwind Wednesdays project at Ebb & Flow Fermentations in Cape Girardeau.Submitted

"We decided, 'Well, how about 10% of the proceeds during every event, what if that went to something that you were passionate about,'" Brooker said. "We then agreed to use these events for this program called artKIDtech. Ten percent of all proceeds from each Wednesday goes to artKIDtech."

For more information about Unwind Wednesdays visit www.Facebook.com/UnwindatEbb.