Breanna’s
Gift
Mark your calendars for
Saturday, April 26!
AN ARTS PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN WITH
CANCER & OTHER SERIOUS ILLNESSES
News!
February 2014
Dear Friends,
I hope 2014 has started just the way you wanted. If you were hoping for
school closings and wind chill temperatures of -47 degrees, then Minnesota
was the place to be.
On April 26, 2014, we are holding our sixth annual Breanna’s Star event.
We’ve taken up the front of this newsletter as a SAVE THE DATE reminder,
so we hope you will do just that and that you will be able to join us in April.
If you’d like to consider being a part of Breanna’s Gift by holding an event,
helping with an existing event, or making a donation, please contact us:
[email protected]. Your donation to Breanna’s Gift is entirely tax
deductible.
SAVE
THE DATE!
Join us at
Braemar Golf Club
in Edina for a night
of art, celebration and
fun, benefiting
Breanna’s Gift.
For more information,
contact Jennifer Edwards,
Event Coordinator & Chair
at 651.208.1596 or
[email protected]
BreannasGift.org
SAT, APR 26
2014
7-10:30 pm
Music by
Trailer Trash Band
+ art, entertainment,
silent auction,
hors d’oeuvres,
wine & more!
For some, New Year’s is a time for looking back and moving forward. For
Breanna’s Gift, looking back saw a year filled with joy, as classes continued at
Ronald McDonald House of the Twin Cities, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of
Minnesota in St. Paul and Minneapolis and University of Minnesota, Amplatz
Children’s Hospital. Once each month we visited “The Dude” at Star Studios,
Kid’s Clubhouse TV show. And children at our program hospitals, along with
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Children’s Hospital in Richmond, Virginia
enjoyed almost 300 “Art Classes in a Box.” To this we say, “WOW!” along with
a big THANK YOU to all of the volunteers who helped put the boxes together
and to Jon Drew who made the very special drawing and watercolor pads
and colorful covers.
At Ronald McDonald House, our program closed out 2013 with a dance
performance called “Deck the Halls.” The kids took to performing with ease.
Some of the children performing had been practicing for several weeks while
others had only a couple of classes to get in the swing, but they did it and it
was such fun!
Breanna’s
Gift
AN ARTS PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN WITH
CANCER & OTHER SERIOUS ILLNESSES
February 2014
The second TOGETHER event honoring Breanna and her oldest brother, Jalen
was held at Totino-Grace High School. We’d like to thank Totino-Grace and all
of the teachers and volunteers who came together to help us with our family
day of art and fun.
Thank you to Corporate Art Force for their corporate
donation, the Reiling Family Foundation for their support
and Caribou Coffee in Brooklyn Center, who for the third
consecutive year, selected Breanna’s Gift to be a part of
their Amy’s Blend campaign. And thanks to your many
individual donations and in-kind contributions, we
continue to be able to support our mission.
Ending 2013 and moving into 2014, Breanna’s Gift was the recipient of a
$10,000 grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. This arts activities
grant will support in part, our arts program
from November 2013 – August 2014, made
possible by the voters of Minnesota through
grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts
Council, thanks to the legislative
appropriation from the arts and cultural
heritage fund.
So, here we are. January, 2014 and the children at Ronald McDonald House
had their first Theater Improv Class led by Harmony Theater Company. This
was a perfect introduction to the puppet workshop led by Margo McCreary
… three afternoons of making puppets, creating characters and having the
characters tell a story. Children and their imaginations; is there anything
better?
Our hospital kids learned about the art of sumi-e painting. The recipe is
simple: combine rice paper, black ink, brushes, water and Chris Wilson, our
newest visual arts teacher, and voila, you have sumi-e paintings!
We have lots more workshops and classes planned for 2014, so stay tuned
and as always, THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us bring the magic
of the arts to seriously ill children.
By the way, if you’re on Facebook, we hope you’ll “like” us!
Sincerely,
Marsha Ovitz, Founder and Executive Director
Breanna’s Gift
BreannasGift.org