11.11.11: Make Stef's Wishes Come True

wellsyu1 Fundraiser

We need $730 to make this happen!

New HOPE Art member and seasoned seamstress Stef Gesiorski has decided to travel to Haiti in January. She will be working on sewing projects with the girls at OJFA. Their clothing is in a sad state of disrepair. Though it’s nothing a few zippers, needle and thread can’t fix. Many of the girls at the orphanage have party dresses donated from all over the world that no longer have buttons or working zippers. Often you will see 12 and 13 year old girls in clothing that gapes open exposing their bodies as they walk in the streets to school.

We are now accepting cash donations to pay for Stef’s flight through our Pyrex Donation Site. We are also accepting donations of sewing kits, sewing supplies and bras (training up to 34B).

Stef will also help with building a vertical urban garden in the courtyard of the orphanage. And she’ll be working on the commemorative poster project on January 12th, on the anniversary of the earthquake.

Thank you for your support!

11.11.11: Make Stef’s Wishes Come True

Melissa Schilling Fundraiser

We need $730 to make this happen!

New HOPE Art member and seasoned seamstress Stef Gesiorski has decided to travel to Haiti in January. She will be working on sewing projects with the girls at OJFA. Their clothing is in a sad state of disrepair. Though it’s nothing a few zippers, needle and thread can’t fix. Many of the girls at the orphanage have party dresses donated from all over the world that no longer have buttons or working zippers. Often you will see 12 and 13 year old girls in clothing that gapes open exposing their bodies as they walk in the streets to school.

We are now accepting cash donations to pay for Stef’s flight through our Pyrex Donation Site. We are also accepting donations of sewing kits, sewing supplies and bras (training up to 34B).

Stef will also help with building a vertical urban garden in the courtyard of the orphanage. And she’ll be working on the commemorative poster project on January 12th, on the anniversary of the earthquake.

Thank you for your support!

…a trail of HOPE, a commemorative street portrait project

Melissa Schilling Art Projects

Thank you to all of our kickstarter donors who made this project possible …

Juliya Obukhovskaya, Monica Dolan, Melissa Felix, Tiffany A. Yandt, Cara, Jo, Keri Muma, Mark, Cathy and Frank Vives, Maritza, Sandra Cherk, Trink Praxel, Chantelle Roche, Katy Bilodeau, Anonymous, Christine Bradley, Lucy and Dave, Elyse Wood, Tom Neuhaus, Katie Kolb, Mica and Taylor, Bridget Hansen, Rebecca Marlitt Schilling, Suzanna Ferebee, Beth Thorpe, Nathalie Philippe, Charlene Sandlin, Lailani Ali, Stephanie Raugust, Susana Arias, Deborah N. Behles, Melissa Rockstar, Krystel Cassis, Roy Ehlenberg, Anita Salem, Kris F. Heil, Stefani Gesiorski, Kathleen Barbaro, Justin Helton, Dave Coleman, Debra Sloss, Kalle Thompson, Wes and Beth Dalzell, Sandra D. Siano, David Eurpongpan, Don. A. Zimmerman, Chris Munich, Elizabeth Castles, and Joanne F. Wong

We will be heading back to Port au Prince, Haiti on January 6th and staying through the 20th. On the anniversary of the earthquake on January 12th, we will be papering the streets around Carrefour (a slum neighborhood in PaP) with portraits of the young girls we work with at OJFA. These portraits express hopes, dreams and goals for the future. It is our pleasure to foster the manifestation of HOPE in this hard hit city, in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Each donor will receive a high resolution photograph they may share with friends and family showcasing the portrait they personally helped fund.
All money raised goes towards art supplies, printing costs and travel expenses from the Bay Area to Port au Prince.

Thank you a million-fold.

Worms 101

Melissa Schilling Urban Agriculture

[slideshow]

HOPE Art Haiti Vermicomposting Project Overview

Project Overview: Through a process called vermicomposting, food scraps are fed to worms and transformed into a nutrient-rich compost for plants and gardens. Vermicomposting can help businesses and schools save money.

VermiCompost Bin: Wooden bins can be constructed by students, staff, or parents. The size and number of bins needed will depend upon the amount of food scraps produced by your school. Roughly one square foot of worm bin is needed for each pound of food waste produced per week. For example, if your school generates 30 pounds of food scraps each day, five days per week, you will need 150 square feet of bin space to handle the 150 pounds of food each week. Five bins that are each 4 feet by 8 feet (32 square feet) will give you a 160-square-foot area for food scrap recycling.

Worms: Two species of red worms, eisenia foetida and lumbriscus rubellus, work best for vermicomposting but they can’t tolerate high temperatures. Composting worms do night like light. They will do whatever is necessary to escape the light. So keep your compost bins completely dark.

WORM 101
10 year old Jared helped me with phase 1 of this vermicomposting project: Working with Worms for the First Time.
I picked up a carton of live red worms from a nursery for $14.99 for 2lbs of worms. They were in a refridgerated case, chilled. Like wine, but they are worms. Ha!

Jared cut two San Jose Mercury Newspapers into strips and put them into an old plastic bin. He added about 3 cups of water. Then topped that off with leaves and food waste from the Green Bin in his backyard. We added rosemary and chamomile from his front yard so it wouldn’t smell too badly.
Then we added a bit of peat moss and dirt and finally the worms.

The bin is stored on my back patio in partial sun/shade with the top of th ebin ajar to allow oxygen to flow freely. The dirt feels and looks mostly moist, but not wet. I do believe my red worms are having a grand old time chomping waste into usable top soil as we speak.

143

Melissa Schilling Fundraiser 1 Comment

One Hundred Forty Three Dresses for Haiti have rolled in from all over the world!

For anyone not familiar with pager text code from the 1990’s,
the number 143 means I Love You.

So to commemorate 143 dresses, hand sewn for Haiti, is very special.

At this time we need money to transport all the dresses to Haiti. We’d like our artists to hand deliver them to the orphanage in Carrefour. Please donate anything you can by clicking here.

A special thank you to all the amazing seamstresses who continue to send in homemade sun dresses for HOPE Art’s Dress Drive. Our original goal was 30 dresses, a new one for each girl, and our count as of today is 143 and still climbing! It’s been incredibly heartwarming to watch them continue to come in.

For those of you that may not have sewing skills, but would like to support this project, HOPE Art has a new Kickstarter campaign running that we would like to also serve as a dress delivery trip in January. Only 6 days are left to reach our goal and receive all the money that has been pledged so far. Please consider skipping a latte for a day and donating even just $5 to make this special trip happen. Every little bit helps, thanks!

P.S. This pink dress is the very first one we ever received.