that you're five years old, suddenly finding yourself in a Children's Hospital Emergency Room apprehensive and afraid of what will happen to you or to your brother or sister...
Imagine yourself in the Hematology/Oncology
clinic waiting for your blood to be drawn or in an Outpatient Clinic having transfusion or infusion therapy....and you are only ten years old.
Imagine waking up in an Intensive Care Unit
to the sounds of monitors beeping and unfamiliar people saying
words you haven't heard before. Or being a teenager with a chronic
illness and having to spend days on end in the hospital away
from your family and friends.
Imagine going to court and being being placed in a children's waiting room to wait for hours and then
be told you will be going to foster care with only what you
came in with? Imagine you are 5 or 12 or even 15 and experiencing
this.
The Art for Life Foundation believes art
is a valid and natural part of a child's life. It serves as
a connection point between the mind and body and is an important
link in a child's ability to heal on every level. Because of
this we have developed several programs over the years to bring
the arts to children in places where it can help them heal.
A child can go through a chemotherapy treatment
while painting ceramics. A family can be soothed at night by
their child's bedside to the sounds of a harp playing nearby.
A child can leave from a courthouse for foster care with coloring
books and crayons because it is something they are familiar
with. It is something they want. We know. We have asked them.
Art is immediate. It can transform a frightening
experience into a fun and creative one. In a hospital or a court
waiting room art gives children a voice. Let's listen to what they have
to say! You can help us to make a creative difference
in the lives of children. Please won't you join us!
. . 
