The Army Of Good is on the march. This morning, the Mansion got the $10,000 it needed to buy a new van. Yesterday, Rachel Barlow got enough money donated to her creative art bag to purchase enough materials for 40 kits. They are a lot cheaper than a van, but just as important.
As of yesterday, Barlow, a Vermont author and artist, had raised more than $400 for her inventive Creativity Kits – draw.paint.create – to give to newly arrived refugee children, many of whom have suffered extreme trauma and abuse in their home countries. Many others like them have been waiting for months, even years, to come to America.
They will be barred from the country once the new immigration regulations and bans take place. But we can help the kids who are already here. Barlow designed the kits to help young trauma victims heal and explore their own creative instincts and find their own voice.
Creativity can do that, I can testify to that, so can Rachel. She knows what she is doing. She has suffered abuse and depression and used her creative gifts to heal and create beautiful things.
Rachel is seeking $900 to buy enough kits for the children who desperately need something like this. She is almost halfway there in just one day. The program is already being closely watched by refugee agencies elsewhere, Rachel hopes it might go national. I believe it will, it surely should.
What’s In A Kit? Go see here. The kits are designed to be simple – watercolors, a sketch book, coloring pencils, a sharpener, a coloring book and a book for young artists on how to draw animals.
Rachel’s landscapes are popular in Vermont, the also publishes a blog.I am happy to have two of her very inexpensive and beautiful landscapes hanging on my walls, I hope you get a chance to take a look at them.
It’s a wonderful idea, a manifestation of the noble spirit. Of empathy, the expression of social justice and a pathway to the highest human potential.
The refugee children are isolated and sometimes, frightened and bewildered. Many of these innocent and helpless children have suffered horribly in their young lives and seen horrendous and traumatizing things.
Most don’t speak English, have few friends, do not understand American customs yet and are increasingly kept indoors by their parents and foster parents, they fear the harassment and persecution that many refugees have experienced.
The kits are inventive, easy to use, well thought out.
They can help children heal, gain confidence, light their creative sparks, all benefits they will use in their new lives. Sometimes the problems of the world seem overwhelming, but this is something we can do that will make an enormous difference and also send an important signal to these children: we are not a nation of stone-hearted people, we welcome them and will work to care for them and assist them and protect them.
These kids spent a lot of time inside or alone.
You can give a donation to this very worthy cause in any amount, $5 is as welcome as $100.
Rachel wants to get 60 of these kids out as soon as possible. The idea of a Creativity Kit is a powerful and timely one. Such a kid is good for any of us, but especially for children coming to a new land and seeking to find their way here.
In one day, she is halfway there. I think we’ll get the rest of the way soon. Thanks much for considering this.