Page 30 March 2015 Send Entries to: Teachers We Love c/o Arcadia News 3850 E. Indian School Rd., Phx, AZ 85018 or fi ll out a nomination form online at: arcadiadaily.com/teachers.pdf Teacher/Administrator Name: _____________________________________________ School Name: _________________________________________________________ Your Name: ___________________________________________________________ Your Email Address: ____________________________________________________ Your Phone Number: ___________________________________________________ How does this person make a difference? __________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ It’s easy to recognize and nominate your favorite teacher for Teachers We Love! Just fill out this form and mail, fax or drop it by our office. OR, you can nominate a teacher online at www.arcadiadaily.com/teachers.pdf Be sure to include details about why your teacher is great (more details = better chance of winning!) Winning teachers will receive special gift certificates to Fox Restaurants and Salon Sandoval! Send Entries to: Teachers We Love c/o Arcadia News 3850 E. Indian School Rd., Phx, AZ 85018 or fi ll out a nomination form online at: arcadiadaily.com/teachers.pdf Teacher/Administrator Name: _____________________________________________ School Name: _________________________________________________________ Your Name: ___________________________________________________________ Your Email Address: ____________________________________________________ Your Phone Number: ___________________________________________________ How does this person make a difference? __________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ _ _________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ It’s easy to recognize and nominate your favorite teacher for Teachers We Love! Just fill out this form and mail, fax or drop it by our office. OR, you can nominate a teacher online at www.arcadiadaily.com/teachers.pdf Be sure to include details about why your teacher is great (more details = better chance of winning!) Winning teachers will receive special gift certificates to Fox Restaurants and Salon Sandoval! Do you know a teacher who really makes a difference? By Michelle Donati-Grayman For more than two decades, Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona has been using creative arts to heal abused, neglected and homeless children in Arizona. The organization was founded by Art Therapist Margaret Beresford in 1993. She saw the program in California and decided to bring it to Arizona. Beresford gathered friends who were passionate about the arts and children, and the nonprofit grew from there. Today, Free Arts uses dance, theater, music, spoken word and other art mediums to help children express themselves, according to Katia Brown Howard, director of development for Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona. The arts can help children find a stronger voice, she said. This is true even for children who don’t like to say much at all. “If speaking aloud isn’t a strong point, painting or music allows expression without words,” Howard said. The agency partners with group homes, treatment centers and shelters in Maricopa County. The agency serves children from as young as 3 years old to late teens that have aged out of the system, yet continue to stay involved with the organization. The agency served 7,000 children last year and has served 80,000 since its inception. The majority of these Nonprofit program uses the arts as therapy for children children – more than 80 percent – come from foster care. Lamonte McVuffie, 17, became involved with Free Arts two years ago when he was living in a group home. He said the agency has made a profound difference in his life. “It taught me value,” said McVuffie. “To value what I am and what I create in life, because that’s what people are going to remember me by.” According to the American Art Therapy Association, artistic self-expression helps people to become more physically, mentally and emotionally healthy, reduce stress and handle life adjustments. “It’s therapeutic because it allows children to focus on something that’s not their life,” Howard said. “Not a lot of our kids have that opportunity in the situation they’re in.” To continue serving Arizona’s most vulnerable children, Free Arts has two major needs: donors and volunteers. Free Arts holds several fundraising events throughout the year, including an upcoming art auction. The event will be held March 8 at Neiman Marcus at Scottsdale Fashion Square. It will feature Ed Mell, a Phoenix native and internationally renowned artist. More than 40 art pieces will be auctioned at the event, including a piece by Mell. Tickets are $75 per person and are available at freeartsaz.org. From being an office volunteer for a single day to spending 8 to 16 weeks as a weekly program mentor, there’s no shortage of volunteer opportunities at Free Arts. The agency hosts volunteer orientation meetings at 6 p.m. on Mondays and 9 a.m. on Wednesdays for those interested in getting involved. The agency currently has more than 500 volunteers, but can always use more. “We never run out of opportunities to Handmade wind bells at Cosanti can be purchased in their gift shop as part of Free Arts’ ongoing fundraising. serve kids,” Howard said. “Our need is to find adult volunteers to help.” McVuffie is now a freshman at Grand Canyon University and serves as a Free Arts mentor. “My mentor wasn’t getting paid. They came because they wanted to,” said McVuffie. “When I left to start college, I went back to become a mentor because I wanted to do the same thing my mentor did for me.”

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