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10-Year-Old Chelsea Phaire Sends 1,500 Art Kits to Kids in Foster Homes and Shelters
Chelsea Phaire, a 10-year-old 5th-grader and founder of Chelsea’s Charity, creates art kits for kids in need around the nation. She chooses to give back to children in hopes that there will be a better tomorrow for all.
For her birthday last year, Chelsea asked family and friends for art supplies so she could give back to children who had been affected by gun violence. However, Chelsea didn’t know that soon, the coronavirus pandemic would take over the world! She decided to shift her mission to help children in homeless shelters and foster care.
Chelsea supports the mental and emotional well-being of all children through art. She created an Amazon wishlist through which others can purchase and send out art supplies to children in need. When Chelsea receives enough donations to fill her special kits, she fills them with an abundance of art materials and ships them out with the help of her parents. Chelsea’s mom, early-education professor Candace Phaire, told Fox News that Chelsea’s Charity has become a family project. “My husband and I are both service-oriented, we serve in our community and our church, so to see that in our children … makes me really proud.”
Parents reports that Chelsea turned to art after losing her swim coach to gun violence and to cope with bullying at school. In a video message she recorded for a class of students to whom she sent art kits, she explains, “Art is important to me because no matter how bad I’m feeling…my art supplies are always there for me…so, no matter what happens, know that art is a start!”
Since the stay-at-home orders went into effect across the U.S., Chelsea has distributed more than 1,500 art kits to children in 12 states, including 75 kits to schools in Philadelphia.
“I want to visit and give kits to every single state and then move onto other countries as well,” Chelsea told Fox News. “There’s kids that need good art out there, and I just want to find every single one of them out there. Who knows, maybe world peace will happen. It doesn’t hurt to try.”
“The kids were just so excited, and it was a huge weight off the parents’ shoulders,” Shana Carignan, Development Director at Families Moving Forward in Durham, N.C., told the Washington Post after receiving Chelsea’s kits for the children in their service. Stacy Dewitt, the executive director of James Storehouse, additionally told the publication, “These art kits have helped caregivers, particularly those with new foster placements, engage in conversation with the kids in a safe way that builds trust.”
Foster parents have said that the kits are useful for channeling their children’s energy in a positive way.
With more free time lately, Chelsea has also started the “Chat with Chelsea” initiative, facilitating weekly interviews with artists on Instagram Live.
She’s hosted chats with Nikkolas Smith—children’s book author and illustrator at Walt Disney Imagineering—as well as Kathy Cano-Murillo, the chief executive of the Crafty Chica, Najee Dorsey, the founder of Black Art In America, and countless others.
At such a young age, Chelsea Phaire teaches us all how far a little kindness can go! Chelsea’s Amazon wishlist has had an abundance of donations and will soon open back up for more.