Planting Seeds of Hope through Art

{The more you give, the more you have.}

The season's changing. Can you feel it? Kids are back in school. And pretty soon, we'll all be at the start line as we make our way through a holiday season that starts in October and carries us to the finish line as we ring in the new year. Time flies. And if we're not careful, time will fly by without our having the chance to find a way to do something meaningful. Something larger than ourselves. An opportunity to give back. To help. To love.

In addition to the funds that we have been raising since March 1st through our ART SAVES merchandise program to benefit our Charities of Choice (which will be dispensed at the end of 2010), CRESCENDOh is really thrilled to be supporting an artist in a small but meaningful way as the holidays approach. Her name is Melody Nuñez. And since 2003, Melody has been going into different public school classrooms in southern California to teach kids visual journaling: the combination of writing/journaling, drawing, and collage. The students in the classrooms that she targets are considered "at-risk." The risks they face include poverty, abuse, gangs, drugs ... and parents in prison.

Says Melody: "I teach these classes in the hopes that I'll give them a positive, creative outlet to help them process the crazy world they live in. Art and writing have been essential to me as I've traveled through life, and am hoping to plant these seeds in children that are facing so many challenges."

When Melody works with these students, she offers them each a brand new blank journal and a packet of brand new art supplies for them to use and keep. To say the least, these art supplies completely delight the children.

Would you like to help? We hope so. We would love for you to consider helping us gather items that can be used to create the art packets that are given to each student. The thing is, we need items to be donated in multiples of 45. That way, each art packet can be developed in a uniform way, so that every child gets a standard set of the most basic supplies. if you are able, we would need donations of 45 items of each of the following:

• Glue sticks
• Safety scissors
• Small packs of crayons
• Stickers
• Writing instruments
• Embellishments for journaling
  

• (If there are other items that would aid in visual journaling and that would delight the children that you would like to donate in multiples of 45, we welcome your ideas. Also, if you have really cool "onesie-twosie" items that could be in a special bin for children to have a special opportunity to draw from ... for example, rubber stamps or decorative papers, etc., we would welcome these items as well.)

We are aiming to receive all donations no later than November 21, 2010 at:

CRESCENDOh, PO Box 11726, Santa Ana, CA 92711

If you have questions, please send an email to carly@crescendoh.com. This will allow us to let you know if the item you would like to donate has already been donated. (It is our hope that we will be able to grow this program in future years, so that we can accept a larger number of donations.)

On behalf of Melody and the lives of all the children who will be positively affected through your donated items of art supplies, we thank you.

Happy (almost) holidays.

Comments

[Rebecca]

Hi Jenny, thanks for letting us know about Melody and her program. I am inspired!

[Melody M. Nunez]

Jenny - thank you SO much for your support. Your shared enthusiasm for his program makes my heart happy! I appreciate everything that you and your team are doing to help me provide the children with a wonderful creative experience. And thank you in advance to your donating readers!

[the messy nest - Jen Osborn]

Having been the "Art Mom" in both of my children's elementary and middle schools, I know how important art can be to not only learning, but simply coping for many children. I'll be emailing Carly tomorrow to see how Larry and I can help :)

xox
me

[becky shander]

Melody is an angel and so are you...thank you both. And I'll get in touch with Carly for the donation details.