In January 2009, Andrea Keith and Lindsay Lavelle came together in Playa Sámara with a shared dream: to provide free, high-quality supplementary education to local youth. With just $2,000, art supplies, and a tiny library, they joined forces with Laura Ellington, founder of Intercultura language school, and Asociación CREAR was born.

Andrea and Lindsay began their work with a monthly stipend of $200 each, juggling multiple jobs to allow them to nurture CREAR's growth. Their first project, a January summer camp in El Torito and Samara, marked the beginning of something extraordinary. Thirty eager children joined on day one, a testament to the community's trust.

Following the success of the camp, they outlined their simple vision for the school year, they sought to offer one hour of "CREAR" to every grade each week within the two local public elementary schools. “CREAR” as an idea was still defining itself at this point, but each week the students of Sámara and El Torito elementary would receive one hour of free class at school thanks to Lindsay and Andrea. The young coordinators worked theater, art, the environment and dance into their classes. What began with humble beginnings in 2009 has expanded to eight weekly hours focused on English and Art per student, plus high school programs, scholarships, environmental education, girl's empowerment, day camps and larger scale community beautification efforts by 2023.

Inspired by the faith they felt from the community, Lindsay and Andrea looked for new ways to fund CREAR programs. They began by selling phone cards and hosted their first surf tournament, raising $1,800 to purchase bicycles which they would rent out as a way to earn money. As time went on they were able to find less labor intensive ways to secure funds. They later harnessed community volunteers and expanded their donor network for sustainable funding. With determination, they crafted a mission statement, logos, built a website, and ventured into the rewarding challenge of managing volunteers.

2010 brought a game-changing opportunity: funding from the prestigious Costa Rican Ministry of Culture program ProArtes. Despite a tight deadline, they were able to secure $16,000 in government grants. This money would enable 100 local children to embark on educational field trips across their homeland. This grant was transformational for CREAR and solidified its impact. To this day, these field trips remain legendary in the minds of the participants, many of them well into adulthood and now sending their own kids to participate in the same kinds of magical and impactful programs.  

Year by year, and thanks to many dedicated and generous individuals making contributions small and large, CREAR expanded its programs, embracing preteens, teens, girls' empowerment, in-school assembly or ‘charla’ programs, environmental education, and Art and English classes. Despite many challenges, Andrea was able to move the program from a closet-sized office to a garage office to the Samara community center to the June Nickerson CREAR Learning Center, a beautiful space dedicated to youth education.

In 2023, with nearly 15 years of experience, the CREAR family continues to grow. Recently we have started to receive the first round of ‘second generation’ CREAR students. These kids are the children of former CREAR kids who participated in the early years of our program. We see the excitement and confidence of these young parents as a testament to the lasting impact of the programs. We look forward to having CREAR grandparents and even great-grandparents join our journey.

Whether you are a donor, volunteer, employee, beneficiary, or just a fan, thank you to all members of the CREAR family for your unique contributions, which have allowed this program to continue its valuable community work.