ARTISTS HELPING CHILDREN FOUNDATION JUST LAUNCHED
By Rachel Goldstein

Remember when you were a kid and you had to go to the hospital? Remember the strange sights, the sounds, unpleasant smells, and strangers entering your hospital room? You had no idea what was happening to you and no one could explain in a certain way you understood. You waited a lot with nothing to do except worry about what was going to happen next.

Artists Helping Children Foundation (http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing comfort to children in hospitals, clinics, and shelters by brightening their environment with murals and other art. By painting murals and creating other art for and with the children, we create enriching and happy places to ease the childrens fear and pain, to take their minds and their hearts out of the cold and into warm and wonderful places. It is amazing how a piece of paper and crayons can divert his attention away from pain. This is because children respond to and use artwork as tools for coping.

The many people who work with Artists Helping Children provide art that brings joy and happiness to the lives of ill, mistreated, and needy children in communities everywhere. Through the generosity of artists, patients and community members, Artists Helping Children helps create murals, pieces of art, and provides arts and crafts supplies for the kids we serve.

HERE ARE A FEW WAYS WE BRING JOY TO ILL AND NEEDY CHILDREN

(1) Professional Muralists - Our muralists change the look of hospitals for the better. A team will visit a site to meet with the facilities staff. With their help, we plan out a theme, the colors, and images that we will make use of within the mural. Then, we present sketches of designs appropriate to the space. Once the designs are approved, we start recruiting volunteers and budgeting for the project.

(2) Paint-A-Mural Community Events - Community organizations are instrumental in helping us bring beautiful murals in to as many institutions as we may. Paint-a-Mural events are entertaining, stress-relieving, and a dazzling way to bond with your community members. We provide a color-coded canvas with the mural drawn in, almost like a big coloring book. The volunteers job is to paint, paint, and paint.

(3) Local Stores are Getting Involved - Stores are even acquiring involved. Some stores have decided to
Display our pre-drawn canvas murals, cut in to smaller pieces for easier handling. These stores are able to show the local community that their store is a charitable organization and at the identical measure get eager children into their store to help paint the murals. After completion, we clean up the mural and donate it to an organization of their choice.

(4) Patients Can Join In - Patients enjoy the chance to get out of their rooms and do something uplifting and entertaining. Their minds are focused on happiness and they let the memory slip about their pain, if only for a short while. And even when they cant participate first hand, we try to get them involved in the experience by making available outlets such as coloring and watercolor paint-by-number books that they can enjoy in their beds.

Please visit ArtistsHelpingChildren.org to see more about what we are doing, and how you might help our cause.