500 Brushes

I visit schools throughout the United States. One of the most troubling problems I see is the disparity between poorly funded and abundantly funded schools. Art seems to suffer most, even in fairly wealthy neighborhoods. In my home state of Washington, it is rare to find an art teacher in an elementary school. And when art is missing, kids simply do not learn as well and certainly stumble when others flourish with arts in their midst.

500 BRUSHES is a project aimed at calling attention to the lack of art education.

I'm asking picturebook illustrators and other artists to donate USED paintbrushes. Each time I receive 500 brushes, I will bundle them up and donate them along with other art supplies to an underserved school.

This may be a small step, but it can begin to call attention to the importance of art. It can also begin to build small art centers and art rooms in elementary schools.

Thanks for your help!

500 BRUSHES
c/o Ron Hirschi
PO Box 899
Hadlock, Washington 98339

New Orleans Bookmobile

The People's Organizing Committee is a grassroots New Orleans group working on various aspects of post-Katrina recovery. They have acquired a bookmobile, and will be driving books around the hard-hit areas of the city. Between the flooding and the mold problem that followed, many books were lost and have not been replaced, both in libraries and in people's homes.

Rather than operating as a lending library, this bookmobile will move through neighborhoods, giving kids the opportunity to choose books to keep for their own. Plans are to operate mainly in the summer, when there is a real lack of structured activity for New Orleans children. They welcome donations of new or used books, from picture books up through YA novels. Please send to:

Sherry Mutschler
2230 Ursulines Ave
New Orleans LA 70119

Reaching for the Stars Foundation

You always remember them—the kid who comes up with a figurative comparison that shocks you with its clarity, the one who shows you a doodle with more perspective than a first year art student, the voice that says it could sing its way to the stars —those artists in the making that have you wishing for a time machine so you see what they make of themselves a decade down the road. For these students and thousands of others we never get the chance to meet, there’s a small window through which they can climb to reach their goals of becoming an author, an artist, an actor, or a musician. Reaching for the Stars Foundation is dedicated to making sure that window is open to as many children as possible for as long as possible.

By offering grants to schools, classrooms, libraries, and individual students across the country, the foundation will provide young artists with art supplies, books, lessons, public performances, and artist-in-residence opportunities. We hope to receive grant proposals from elementary, middle school, and high schools throughout the U.S. that incorporate the arts into the classroom curriculum through creative writing, music, drama, and the visual arts. We also want to give students exposure to artists in various fields so that they can be inspired to pursue that art and learn more about the artistic process of the art form. We also want to offer scholarships for students to attend artist camps in various genres. These grants will be awarded based on immediate curricular outcomes, long term commitment to supporting the arts, artistic innovation in curricular design, and financial need. Scholarships will be given based on pre-existing talent, potential for growth, personal commitment, and financial need.

We’d love to kick off our fund raising efforts with a silent auction this spring. For our inaugural event, we’re looking for artistic donations of various kinds—signed books, recorded stories, musical performances, signed sketches, a personal letter from one artist to another, a piece of advice for young artists, a manuscript, anything that would inspire a young artist. These items will be auctioned to teachers and librarians who will make them available to their students in the classroom and/or give them as gifts to aspiring artists. Public display of the items is a condition of purchase at our auction.

We’re looking forward to hearing from any artist willing to donate a school visit to the auction. We hope to offer one as a grand prize and auction any others that are donated. We will do our best to match this donation with at least one paid school visit in the same general vicinity at a rate off at least $1000.00 a day plus expenses. We cannot promise we will be able to arrange a visit, but we will do our best. As the foundation builds, we will be enlisting artists to visit schools at the same rate. If we keep growing, so will our honorarium and the artistic opportunities we can offer artists and students across America.

Invest in the artists of the future and send us a donation. All donations will be tax deductible and you will receive a receipt after the item is sold. The foundation is currently in the process of establishing for 501c3 non-profit status. The process will be complete in March of 2008. Our board of directors include Dr. Ken Stamatis, Director of the Graduate Program in Reading at Harding University, Dr. Joan Kindig, Associate Professor of Education at James Madison University, Media Specialist Jill Weir at Cabot Middle School North, Literacy Specialist Yvonne Furniss of the Wilbur Mills Educational Co-op, and myself, Alexandria LaFaye, author of Worth and Visiting Assistant Professor in low residency programs at Hollins and Hamline Universities. The event will be hosted by Harding University in Searcy, AR on May 8th, 2008. We will be accepting donations up until May 1st. If you are willing to send a donation, please send me an e-mail. You can send the donations to

Reaching for the Stars Foundation
10 Glendale Drive
Cabot, AR 72023

Like you, I’m an artist who gets a lot of requests for donations, so I totally understand if you’re not able to send anything at this time. But if you believe in our cause and just want to support it, you can send me a note at the e-mail above. We cannot accept monetary donations at this time. If you are interested in becoming involved in this foundation as a volunteer or board member as we work to schedule future events, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Cordially, Alexandria LaFaye
Author &  Foundation Coordinator