Focus In: Helping Hearts

When you combine three kindred-spirit art teachers, a desire to help others, and heart, amazing things can happen! A simple heart shape can elicit feelings of love and compassion, and can become the impetus for helping, raising money, and lifting spirits.
In 2010, devastating earthquakes hit the island of Haiti, where more than half the population live in poverty. Hurricanes, floods, droughts, and earthquakes have had serious effects on the housing situation. The poor live in tents or dilapidated shacks made of cardboard, plastic, tin, or materials scavenged from garbage. These structures barely provide protection against the elements and children frequently fall ill under these conditions.

Haiti Houses
We created the Haiti Houses project by having students make tiny houses out of scrap matboard. They attached a small heart to the front of the house and a pin back or magnet to the other side. Students sold these simple houses and donated the money to Haiti relief efforts. They were joined in this endeavor by thousands of art teachers when the project became national.

Haiti Houses raised more than $300,000 for earthquake relief and the project inspired a similar project for the Tennessee flood victims and other relief efforts. The Clinton Presidential Library sold student-made Haiti House pins, magnets, and ornaments in their gift shop with all proceeds going to Haiti. In 2020, another earthquake hit the island and the project was revived.

Hearts of Hope for Hope Town
Hearts have also played a part in other projects that show compassion and caring. SuzAnne Devine Clark has a personal connection to Hope Town in the Bahamas. When Hurricane Dorian hit Elbow Cay in 2019, Hope Town’s Primary School was almost completely destroyed. SuzAnne created Hearts of Hope for Hope Town and had students create and sell ceramic hearts to help with the rebuilding of Hope Town’s Primary School. The hearts played a big role in restoring normalcy to the lives of those affected and allowed SuzAnne’s students to use their voices to help others.

Pocket Heart Hugs
The aftermath of school shootings, the pandemic, poverty, and increased student anxiety has created the need for wellness centers in our schools. Wellness centers are safe spaces that provide mental health and physical services for students. Mental illness is an issue that must be taken seriously. Educators need to engage students in proactive experiences that lift us up and celebrate our lives and our diversities.

Pocket Heart Hugs are a way to connect with students and foster love and kindness in the school community. Hearts are painted or drawn on smooth stones. Sometimes, a single word or phrase is also written to remind students they are not alone, that they are worthy and enough. The stones are placed in the wellness centers for students to take to have a tactile reminder, a hug, in their pocket.

Wings for Angels Project
The Wings for Angels Project was created for one of the Believe in Tomorrow Children’s Foundation’s homes in Pinnacle Falls, North Carolina. Art students made ceramic butterflies for the peace garden at the home. A simple heart was added to the wings of the butterflies to show love and compassion.

Believe in Tomorrow (BIT) Children’s Foundation is a national leader in hospital and respite housing services, providing more than 560,000 individual overnight hospital and respite housing accommodations to families with critically ill children from every state in the United States, and seventy-six countries worldwide. Children in the homes are given the opportunity to spend time with their families as they try to deal with their devastating situations. The Wings for Angels butterflies will remind the children and families that even a perfect stranger cares for them and the circumstances they are in.

Helping Hearts
The possibilities for “Helping Hearts” are endless. Draw, paint, cut, or stamp your version of a heart and use your heart art to make this world a better place. Add your own Helping Hearts projects, get ideas, and connect with others at our Facebook group at bit.ly/HelpingHeartsFacebook.

Sharing Our Message
Washed Ashore has been featured in the New York Times, Audubon magazine, Smithsonian magazine, O, the Oprah Magazine, and SchoolArts (December 2016). We’ve also been featured in publications for children such as Ranger Ricks, National Geographic Kids, and Highlights. We have been included on television and radio shows such as NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Washed Ashore’s ongoing programs include traveling educational exhibits and educational events. Our art and educational exhibit hall in Bandon, Oregon, includes free weekly walk-in community workshops, educational tours, and school field trips.

We value our Southern Oregon community and partner with local businesses to reward our volunteers. We invest in our region through volunteer workshops to assist in sculpture production and school programs to teach students that every action counts. We also partner with Oregon State Parks, SOLVE, and Surfrider to clean 300 miles of Oregon coast beaches.

We invite you to share with your students our Washed Ashore full-length feature documentary, free to stream and show for educational purposes (see Resources). We make art that educates all. Everyone can learn about our mission, and everyone can participate.