Conversation with Chris
We recently sat down and had a conversation with Chris Garson, published author and long time Lake Erie Ink volunteer, and his experience volunteering with us, what he does when he isn’t volunteering at Ink Spot and a little impromptu career advice.
Learn more about Chris by clicking here!
Who are you?
I’ve lived in Cleveland Heights since 1991 and I grew up in shaker so I’m native to the east side. I love it here. I worked for Progressive Insurance from 1984 to 2010 and I retired in 2010 to start writing. I actually started writing in 2002 when I did it on nights and weekends. Progressive was a great place to work, I have a lot of good friends there, but after 25 years I was ready to move on and do something else and I’ve been really happy writing since then.
I stumbled across Lake Erie Ink in the weirdest way. I was working on a website using wordpress and there were two people sitting at a table near me who were also talking about wordpress. I eavesdropped on them and it turned out to be Cynthia Larsen! They were working on the Lake Erie Ink website. I learned a little about it then and Cynthia said “Well, you should stop by sometime.”
A few months went by and I needed something to do. I liked my writing but I spent a lot of time at home. I needed to be out with other people so I decided to stop in and see what it was all about. That was 8 years ago and I’ve been there ever since.
I spent a lot of time in Ink Spot. I’ve done Tuesdays and Thursday since forever and love doing it. Its awesome working with the little kids and helping them find their voice and learn how to express themselves.
It’s just been the perfect pace for me to spend some of my time because of my love of writing. Hopefully I have some helpful information to impart. Working with kids always feels great. Just doing volunteer work feels good!
Is there one particular story that stands out?
I’m always fascinated by how the kids imagination work and their understanding of the world. I had this student a couple years back Gabe, he was a real cutie. He wanted to be an entrepreneur so bad. He was always making cards and games and trying to get people to buy his stuff. He was curious about my writing. He wanted to know if I made a lot of money writing. So I told him I’ve been doing it for about ten years and I’ve made about 150 bucks.
He asks is that a lot?
I go if you want to take your family out for dinner you can get a nice meal but if you actually want to support a family probably not.
He’s like good to know, I’ll work on selling my games!
Did you ever buy a game?
I did – I have bought some of his stuff. I try to support the kids whatever they do.
We had one student my first or second year who wrote a 400 page novel. He’s about 12 years old. So I was always encouraging him, asking him about it. He was going to sell it on Amazon. I’m proud to say I was his first paying customer.
I have the book today. I got him to autograph it, his sister who was a future ink spotter, and the artist of the book.
That’s special!
Yeah. And what’s also cool, that family’s been a great family in Ink Spot. I’ve enjoyed watching four of their kids come through the program over the years. They’re great kids, great parents, a great family.
We talked a lot about how nice the kids are, something we don’t say enough, but there’s a lot of great parents out there. I find that the parents who want their kids to go to Lake Erie Ink and enjoy the Ink Spot and other programs are the kinds of parents we wished we all had. The kinds of parents who care about their kids, are investing in their education and fostering their imagination. I met so many great parents like that over my years there that they really deserve a big shout out to for getting kids to attend things like Ink Spot.