Summer 2005, Volume 10 Number 2

Table of Contents

AN OPEN LETTER TO KIDS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Heart Art

Thomas A. Edison Elementary School

3559 Pollina Avenue

Fort Gratiot, MI 48059

Dear Kids Can Make A Difference

Thank you for your correspondence and invitation to include information on our HeartArt group efforts. It is a great honor to be featured in your publication, and our students have been enthusiastic about your organization and eager to read your newsletter. The students were pleased to have helped in your organization's annual fund-raiser.

As you requested and with great pride, I give you some details of Heart Art at Thomas A. Edison. It actually began with ideas springing from my involvement in Imagine/Render effort Empty Bowls and information gathered from Kids Can Make A Difference literature. With my background being in the arts, I began thinking of ways in which students could utilize their artistic abilities to help the less fortunate in and around our school district. After conferring with school administrators, it was set that an after-school enrichment class would be set up for students to indeed use their hearts along with the arts to help the needy.

The group, which consists of 14 fourth graders along with one fifth grader, began meeting in late October in recognition of Make a Difference Day. The initial meeting was set aside for students to cooperatively brainstorm ideas as to how their talents could be utilized to help the sick, the elderly, the homeless and the hungry. As soon as our ideas were created, the students began to work – and they truly work earnestly and provided many with generous and noble deeds and gifts of artistic endeavors. These kids really came up with wonderful philanthropic ideas.

Our efforts included: placemats and small Christmas decorations for the local soup, cards for the Color-A-Smile organization, ornaments for a local nursing home, wreaths made to be auctioned at a hospital children's charitable holiday function, the creation of a quilt and other decor to be used for a Martin Luther King school district ceremony, a locally televised concert of Christmas songs for local shut-ins, a sing-a-long and a read-in at a local assisted living home, and a cookie and pin sale to aid Tsunami victims. Our main fundraising event took place in December in which students made cookies and a variety of handmade chocolate candies to sell at school lunches to raise money to help in the 2005 Kids Can Make A Difference organization effort.

Our efforts continue and our intentions will broaden next year, inviting new students to join in the effort and hopefully spreading interest to more of the community. Ultimately, we will remain true to our goal of helping others, and we will pursue means to continue to aid your organization and its efforts to instill children with the power that can make our home a planet where no child nor adult is left hungry.  Your work will remind us of how small people can make a big difference and your inspirational literature will warm and energize our hearts!

Thank you, peace be with you, and may your days be filled with heartfelt love!

Janine Murphy-Evenson, Thomas A. Edison Art Teacher and Director of Heart Art

© Copyright 1999, Kids Can Make A Difference