Photos by Paige Green
The pieces were falling into place quickly as Beth Tisthammer prepared to open her new art studio and gallery for kids. After years of teaching art to children through Sonoma County nonprofits, Tisthammer was ready to create her own unique program of afterschool and summer classes. An ideal storefront in West Petaluma unexpectedly became available, and soon the logo, website, and even the class schedule were completed. Her venture, Cloudland, was ready for prime time.
If You Build It, Will They Come?
Typically, new afterschool or summer programs like Cloudland spend months, even years, building awareness of their classes. Word of mouth has always been the gold standard to success, but it takes time. Program directors placed ads online, reached out via socials, and posted flyers on bulletin boards. Some programs simply never found their audience and closed.
Though Tisthammer has a following through many years of experience, she and a slew of other local camps and programs have a new tool to spread the word and facilitate student registration.
Enrichment.kids is an online registry and hub for camps and after-school activities in the North Bay.
“Children’s programming generates a colossal amount of paperwork. It’s not just receipts; it’s the critical contact information and medical histories I need to keep the children I serve safe. With Enrichment.kids, I save countless hours of administrative labor and can focus my attention on building unique curriculums for my students.”
Jessie Feller and her husband Dave Hahn, creators of Enrichment.kids, recognized a need for parents, and sometimes grandparents, to easily find interesting and relevant activities for their kids. As a busy parent of two elementary-age kids, Feller noticed a pressing need to streamline the process of not just registration but also discovering what is available. “My son’s favorite camp is the Petaluma Wildlife Museum,” said Faller. The museum is the only high school student-run natural history museum in the country. It is an impressive program, and the camps always sell out. Administration staff is minimal, and the staff spent valuable time that could be better used for other things. Feller shared, “To register for the museum I had to print the form, write and attach a check, and then mail it in—just too many steps.”
Building a Better Way
“Dave and I thought we may be able to help not just the museum but other kids’ programs as well,” said Feller. Hahn, a software engineer, and Feller spent 10 years running a nonprofit and has a solid understanding of the needs and challenges. In addition to making registration easier for parents, Faller and Hahn sought to create a service that helps programs save money and volunteer staff hours.
With the help of the museum, they created a prototype and then built a user-friendly one-stop-stop for families to find programs, register, and pay—one, two, three, done! “We made it mobile friendly so people can register while they’re waiting for pick-up or wherever they may be,” Feller exuberantly shared. Listings are regularly updated and blog posts highlight new and interesting programs and relevant topics for families. The organizations pay a small fee for the listing, relieving staff of all the messy details of filling their programs.
With the assistance of Enrichment.kids, Cloudland is able to easily promote classes like Upcycled Art Clothing, Sculpture, and Illustration as well as a student gallery that hosts public openings at the end of each series. She keeps class sizes small in her sunny studio, and most of her courses have had waitlists since opening the doors in November.
“Jessie and Dave have been with me every step of the way, offering suggestions and market insights about what works (and doesn’t) in this industry,” said Tisthammer. “This is a dream job for me, and I want to continue to evolve services to include student grant opportunities and paid internships for high school students. I simply don’t think it would be sustainable for me to grow without this software.”
Feller adds, “We know we’re not going to be all things to all people, but we’re happy that the app has been well received with thousands of visitors each month.”
Sonoma County doesn’t lack interesting activities for kids. Have a child interested in adventure gaming, creating animated cartoons, sailing and boating, sports or music, or deep diving into nature? It’s all available and can now be found pretty much in one place.
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Cloudland
900 B Western Avenue, Petaluma
Find and register for classes and camps for kids: enrichment.kids
