Donna's Kids' founder and director Donna Piken was presented with a plaque by the Mayor and Members of the Livingston Township Council on December 21, 2009. Donna's Kids was honored for its dedication to teaching and inspiring the children of the Livingston community and enriching young lives in the Township. Mayor Charles "Buddy" August thanked Donna for her many years bringing arts enrichment to thousands of children in the area.

 

FALL 2009 FINE ARTS EXHIBITION
featuring our Young Artists

  

    Young Artists at Donna's Kids have joined the call for artists and students from around the world to be part of an international fundraising art exhibition and auction designed to draw attention to the plight of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and poverty stricken children in sub-Saharan Africa.  This unique effort, founded by artist and photographer Naomi Natale, is called The Cradle Project.

      


       


   

    We are pleased to announce that 8 of the 550 cradles on exhibition in Albuquerque, New Mexico through June 28, 2008 are from Donna's Kids.  Participants were asked to craft cradles and cribs out of scrap and recycled materials in a symbolic effort to represent the "lost potential of an estimated 48 million orphaned children."  We were asked to send each cradle with a sponsorship of $100.  Donna's Kids' families and friends reached out and helped raising over $600 to date. 

    Our students were very excited about working on the project and liked the idea of helping other children who were in need.  Each class had a different artistic vision of what their class cradle should look like.  After school Young Artists participating in the project included two Pre-K classes, two Kindergarden classes and one First Grade class. 

    We saw this project as a meaningful experience for the children and a unique opportunity to teach our students that each one of us can make a difference.  Making these cradles stimulated the children's imaginations and artistic expression and was a perfect tool to promote teamwork and learn about an important humanitarian global issue, multi-cultural awareness and social responsibility.

    We would like to congratulate our students on their enthusiastic effort and a job well done.  I would also like to thank Donna's Kids art teacher Crystal Martucci for bringing this project to my attention and congratulate her on her cradle entitled, "Defining Home" which was one of the 76 cradles selected from the over 500 around the world for inclusion in The Cradle Project Book.

    Thank you also to the many Donna's Kids parents and friends who supported this effort with generous donations totaling over $600 to this worthwhile cause.

    To learn more about this effort and see the collection of creative and artistic cradles, visit www.thecradleproject.org.  All proceeds are going to the Firelight Foundation, a non-profit that funds projects for orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa.

UPDATE

All of our Donna's Kids cradles sold!