Darren Collins has taught over 20,000 puppeteers in over fifteen countries and forty-five states for the purpose of education. Darren began teaching puppetry for crime prevention and drug abuse resistance skills in the early 90’s at the America’s PRIDE and DARE conferences. In 1999 he made his first journey to Cambodia to help in the development of water borne illness puppet and magic shows. He’s written germ theory programs that aired on government television in Myanmar.
As a family entertainer he performs educational variety shows designed to inspire and teach his audiences about health, drug abuse, respect, achievement and bullying. Darren is also a stand up comedian and juggler who works at the world famous Improv Comedy club whenever he is in the USA. Darren handles program development, training and implementation.
In 2017 Darren was a recipient of the “Service Above Self Award” from Rotary International. He’s a graduate of Rotary University and the Rotary International Leadership Institute and is a Paul Harris Fellow. As co-founder of Project HAND UP Darren is also a voting board member of HAND UP, Inc.
Just a little bit of history about the area we call home.
The area we now call Collin County was originally settled by pioneers offered free land by colonizers like William S. Peters and associates. Colonizers were hired by the state of Texas to introduce settlers into this area, which was at first was called Peter’s Colony. The offer typically included up to 640 acres of land, a gun and help building a cabin. The Peter’s Colony settlers came in 1841.
Settlers arrived in wagons pulled by oxen or horses and braved the threats of weather, wild animals and native Indians for the promise of free land and a better life. They found that life here in the fertile land was rich but hard. Some left, abandoning their claims, but many stayed on and still more came, establishing farms, communities and commerce.
May the Lord bless you and your loved ones in 2019.
