If there’s one thing that kids look forward to after a long ten months of school, it’s summer break, but it’s also during this time when staying active, both physically and mentally, is extremely crucial.
Thankfully in Pampa, there’s plenty of things to do and get involved in during these summer months to keep the kids engaged and still learning outside of a classroom setting. Whether it be hitting the field or court at one of many sports camps, or letting the imagination run wild at the library’s summer reading program, or even giving kiddos the rare opportunity to get some hands-on experience with one of the world’s oldest forms of art (and survival): leatherworking.
Every year, our beloved White Deer Land Museum hosts a summer camp in both June and July, with kids of all ages getting to interactively learn about some of the panhandle’s most intriguing history, people, and culture.
This year for the very first time, Mernickle Custom Holsters graciously welcomed a group of kiddos to their workshop, and not only showed them every aspect and detail of their process, but they also gave these lucky campers the opportunity to create a work of art themselves.
With slabs of marble to work upon, a piece of leather, and plenty of stamps to use for customization, the spritzing, hammering, and tooling made that entire building sound like Santa’s workshop-and it was absolutely fantastic.
Instructed by Cliff Powers, owner of Mernickle Custom Holsters, he granted these kids total creative liberty and stepped back to watch them in action as they customized their leather pieces. Names, initials, and a variety of different shapes and designs were stamped into each piece, and it’s so neat to think about these kids taking their pieces home and proudly showing off something they made entirely by hand. And who knows, maybe there’s a future leathersmith in our midst!
It was an experience for these campers that felt like stepping back in time to the days of cowboys and the Wild West, yet helping them understand that the artform is still very much alive and well, thanks to folks like Cliff and everyone at Mernickle Custom Holsters, and of course the White Deer Land Museum. Without them and people like them, our youth wouldn’t get to have these awesome hands-on experiences and have the appreciation for what makes our slice of Texas so great.
