Painting the Way

Three years ago, my friend Gloria started an non-profit organization called Painting the Way when she was 14, and I now am co-president of this organization with her. She and I both love art, we took studio art classes as children together, and we now are both passionate about photography as well. Therefore, with that passion, we organize art shows, at her high school, my high school, and at our local library, selling art to raise money to help kids in need. We sell not only our own art, but art from other kids in the community. It's kids helping kids around the world! At our schools, we have groups of kids and even adults who help us with our non-profit, who get involved, who help set up for the art shows and who donate art or even just buy their friends' art works. It's great to see the community come together to help others. So far, we've donated money to Invisible Children, to help the children soldiers there, schools for children in the poor regions of Africa, and the schools in the area where I once felt called to do something, in China. When we donated to the school in China, I felt especially happy, because it meant something personally to us as well. My friend and I are both Chinese, and visiting that school, seeing those children, and knowing we were doing something to help, was really awarding. We hope to be able to continue organizing art shows, hopefully at more places and continuing to make a change for kids around the world.