I was honored when Sarah Park and Kai Tramiel invited me to cover CoachArt’s student art exhibit and fashion show at Seeley Studios. If you’re not familiar with CoachArt it is a wonderful organization. The Los Angeles based nonprofit provides arts and recreational activity coaching to children and adolescents with chronic and life threating illnesses. The program, which is funded through donations, matches pediatric patients and their siblings with talented mentors for free lessons in music, tennis, painting, yoga, photography, golf, dance, cooking, and more. All materials needed are provided and lessons take place in the communities where the children live and most occur in partnering arts, music, dance, or athletic centers or in the family home.
The event began with an art exhibit showcasing works by Estrella Carrillo, Valerie Mendez, Zach Marks, Lesley Meza, Victor Meza, London Mills, Patrick Nichols, Chloe Roach, and Chymanee Young. The displays were from mentorships the children have been in this past year. Some of the kids were matched with a volunteer mentor and others took classes on a scholarship with one of CoachArt’s program partners in the local community. I was really impressed with how creative these young artists are.
Guests had fun on the red carpet.
There were lots of activities for the kids and great tunes courtesy of DJ Lady Splash.
Art Institute fashion alum Sara Caterinnicha was impressed with CoachArt’s program and contacted the organization about being a mentor. Sara designs special occasion children’s wear. Her line is comprised of three collections: I Am! (0 – 14 months), Who’s Little (2 – 6 year olds) and Not Me! (7 – 10 year olds). Today Hazel Cupp, Gigi Curry, Camellia Curry, Hannah Frank, Nicollette Kamal, Sophia Levy, Lourdes Mack, Kimberly Meza, Shoshana Nagibi, and SaMiah Washington had the pleasure of modeling looks from the Who’s Little Holiday Collection. These little girls were adorable on the catwalk. If they were nervous you couldn’t tell because they were struttin’ their stuff and having a good time. When the show was over they were all presented with tiaras and sashes because not only were they models for a day but they were princesses too.
Afterwards I had the pleasure of speaking to some of the volunteers that made this delightful event happen. They all agreed that it was a rewarding experience, and everyone looked forward to making the event bigger next year. For more on Coach Art visit: www.coachart.org
Narrative and photos by Nikki Neil
Thank you, Bite Me, for such great coverage of our event and your support of CoachArt! Love the photos you've featured here! We're definitely going to share this with everyone on our Facebook and Twitter profiles!
ReplyDeleteNikki- Thank you so much for attending our event and featuring CoachArt on your blog. The kids are going to be sooooo excited to see their photos on here!! Thanks again for being a part of our "community of care". See you at the next event- or the next sample sale- whichever comes first! lol
ReplyDeleteSo fun! I'm so glad our kids got to do this.
ReplyDeleteNikki, it was really nice to meet you. Thanks for coming out and covering our Art and Fashion Showcase on your blog. You summed it up so well!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great event! I am sorry that I missed it but Nikki thank you for sharing!
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