Charitable Goals

Stellar Arts Foundation is dedicated to help children in the countries visited.

We at SAF believe in global cultural and arts exchange to preserve and help old cultures and traditions.  We believe in giving and sharing to help the less fortunate.  We believe in uniting people. 

We believe the Arts are the way!

Please read our quarterly newsletters which describe the work we do in Bulgaria. 

The first newsletter (on the bottom) describes in details the history of the charitable project.

Please scroll down to read the previous newsletter.

Special "Thank you" to Akemi Walker, our extra-extraordinary board member/volunteer, for writing the newsletters!

Stellar Arts Foundation Newsletter #3, September, 2007

Hello Friends and Fellow Artists,

We apologize for the delay of our newsletter.  There have been tremendous changes within the foundation and newsletter writing has been simply set aside. 

As many of you already know, Michael and Stella Canfield left for Europe.  The community of Coupeville gave the Canfields a big surprise party to celebrate their new life.  In the end of March, Stella, Michael and their doggy Star flew away to Bulgaria, and Coupeville will never be the same……  THEY NOW LIVE IN BARZITSA, just a few minutes from the orphanage.  After settling down in their newly remodeled old house, Stella has been spending many hours with the children in the orphanage.

Also, as of December 2006, our director, Judy Lynn, left the foundation and I became the person to take care of all the necessary work from the U.S. side.  We were very sorry to see Judy go, and hope for great success in her new endeavor. 

You all know from the two previous newsletters that we are sponsoring a program ”Home for our children” in the orphanage in Barzitsa, Bulgaria.  Here are the updates of the activities:

FOLKLORE

The choreography program is working very successfully and the children have already performed a few times in public.  During the Annual Folklore Festival in June, they took part in the amateur competitions.  The children performed a play including folklore dance and songs. 

THEY WON THE FIRST PLACE IN THE ENTIRE PROVADIA REGION!!!  

As result, children appeared in radio programs where listeners called in with their questions and directly talked with the children.  Their success not only boosted the children’s confidence, but also made the public more aware of orphans that are largely ignored by society.

On the 6th of September the children participated in the International Folklore Festival in Varna where they again received an award.  One of the girls who is a fabulous singer received a special recognition award.

INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION

As you recall from the previous newsletters “Home for Our Children” was a concept developed in Bulgaria by two psychologists, Mitko & Jivka Novkovi with the original name of “Baba” or “Granny” in Bulgarian.  The program was designed for orphans aged from one to six and was implemented through that age level for the first nine years of the program until Stella approached them in the winter of 2005.  Now, for the first time the program has been implemented for children age six to eighteen in our orphanage.  This has not gone unnoticed.  Mitko Novkov was invited to introduce the program in the Russia this month and the Spence Chapin Foundation’s Consultant, Suchitra Mumford from the USA came to visit our orphanage in August.

 LIFE SKILLS THROUGH MUSIC

During a plane ride back from California in December 2006, Stella read an article about the Rhythmic Arts Project (www.traponline.com);  Through rhythm of drum beats, children learn basic skills, communication, and work toward healing emotional and/or behavior problems.   Stella called the U.S. founder, Eddie Tuduri, and the arrangement for Eddies visit to Bulgaria was made.  Thanks to our generous donors, the foundation purchased two sets of percussion instruments needed for the program. 

Eddie arrived in Varna on August 3, and worked with the children in our orphanage for the first week.  Then Stella and Eddie drove 8 hours to the village of Petrovo, in the furthest southwest corner of Bulgaria, to a home for severely disabled children.  SAF donated one of the set of instruments to the home and Eddie successfully introduced the project there.

The children in both homes responded very enthusiastically on the Rhythmic Project.

Our sincere thanks to Eddie Tuduri and our wonderful friends for the support! 

EXCITING DEVELOPMENT

In the past, Children of the orphanage had been schooled in a building inside the compound. Starting this year, they joined the school in an adjacent town. We all understand the merit of mainstreaming, but this change brought a splendid bi-product. The school building in the compound was empty and the local government gave the foundation the permission to use it for the “Home for Our Children” program!!!!!!!

The building has five classrooms and a gym.  This is rather an expensive project, but the foundation hopes to replace the drafty old windows and install a new heating system.   At the present our 'Baba's' (who are retired ladies directly hired by the foundation) look after children in two of the rooms, we have a Play Room and a Computer/Music Room,

NOW, WE PLAN TO CREATE AN ART CENTER!!!  Stella has been collecting many ideas of craft projects for children to create.  We are looking forward to winter months when Stella, the Babas, and the children can stay indoors and work on various projects.

It has been a tremendously hot summer in Bulgaria, but the fall brought a gift of cooler air.  Gone are the flocks of storks in the sky, returning to south following the ancient routes.  We hope you will come with us to Bulgaria next year to paint, visit Stella and the children.

Thank you very much for your interest in the newsletter.

If you would like to support an activity in the orphanage, simply make a donation or come with us to Bulgaria, please contact Stellar Arts Foundation: P O Box 1676, Coupeville WA 98239
(360)678-0838, www.stellararts.org or akemiwalker@comcast.net

Sincerely,

Akemi Walker              

Stellar Arts Foundation Newsletter #2, December 2006

Hello Friends and Fellow Artists!

It is unbelievable the year 2006 is almost coming to end, and once again, there is a special atmosphere in the air.  I am sure this newsletter will find you happily in the midst of hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

I would like to inform you on the exciting developments of the program “Home for Our Children” in the orphanage in Barzitsa, Bulgaria for the past three months.  As you recall from the previous newsletter, the entire program is financed by Stellar Arts Foundation (SAF) and run by two psychologists from a non-profit organization in Sofia, Mitko & Jivka Novkovi.

MECHANIC      A local mechanic was hired and an old car was bought for teaching the mechanics of the car. The instructor’s salary is $100 a month.  Hiring retired local people helps the community and maintains a good relationship between the town and the home.

HAIR STYLING   In my previous newsletter, I mentioned about three retired local elderly ladies working in the home who are “Baba”(grandma) to the children.  Each Baba receives $45 a month. One Baba is a retired hair stylist and the program created a hair styling class.  SAF purchased all equipment and now girls are learning the skill.  How fun it must be for girls to work on each other’s hair!!

SEWING           Another Baba is a retired seamstress.  Two broken sewing machines already existing in the home were repaired, and the Baba is teaching sewing to the children.  Seamstress and tailoring are very viable occupations in Bulgaria.

FOLKLORE DANCING   The program’s most exciting development started from an incident during the Bulgaria tour I participated in May this year.  Every other day of the tour, we had a group dinner.  Usually, we dined in a beautiful courtyard dining area under trees with entertainment of Bulgarian songs and dances with traditional costumes. 

A day before we arrived in the beautiful Black Sea coastal city of Varna the tour guide told Stella that there would be no dinner performance in Varna; the show the guide planned for us wouldn’t start until the next day. Stella told the tour guide the performance was in the tour schedule and he must find another show for that evening.  We have no idea how the guide found and arranged a show of folklore dance by 5 young boys aged from 8 t0 14 in such a short notice, but he did and the rest was history!!

The boys’ skillful and humorous acrobatic dance mesmerized us all.  After the show, we met the performers and their instructor, Mr. Ivan Ivanov. He is a well-known child choreographer in Bulgaria and has taken his troop to Europe, Japan and New York.  He is an honorable citizen of a city in Japan!!!

Next day on the bus, with the excitement of the boys’ dancing still fresh in our hearts, the idea of the orphans’ dance troop was born.  The idea was introduced to the program director and was well received.  We discussed finding a choreographer but we never expected to find a famous person like Mr. Ivanov – he must be too busy and too expensive.  Besides, Varna is one-hour-drive away from Barzitsa where the orphanage is located.  However after interviewing several local choreographers, they contacted Mr. Ivanov just in case, and surprisingly enough, he was very excited about the idea and offered to teach the orphans for a very reasonable wage of $320/mo including travel time and gasoline!!  He has started teaching children in September, and the first performance is already planned on December 17 in the near town of Provadia, which has population of 50,000.

 Now, our dream is becoming reality!!  Just imagine how the kids’ self-esteem will grow in showing their country’s traditional dance to the world – it elates my heart every time I think about it!!  Our plan now is to sponsor their performance tours.  For the purpose alone, we will need to raise $18,000 for next year.

PHOTOGRAPHY   Our Angel Advisor Dr. Jill Cole from The Worldwide Orphans Foundation www.orphandoctor.com/wwo/what_we_do/serbia/ received a grant for a photography program from the foundation.  The program is for orphans to trace back their family roots and film their backgrounds, and it should build a tremendous healing power for the children.  In July 2004, Dr, Cole and filmmaker Randy Bell kicked off the program in Serbia.  Next year, Dr. Cole will bring the program to the orphanage in Barzitsa!!

Our budget for this year was $10,000, which we raised by conducting two tours plus our friends and artists’ heartfelt donation we are deeply grateful for.   Next year, we are conducting: two to Bulgaria, one to Czech Republic.  The Bulgaria tours include a visit to the orphanage.  The visits are always well received by tour participants as well as the children of the home.  After the last tour, most artists commented that the visit to the home was the highlight of the entire trip.    

What an amazing development this year has been for the children!!!  Despite the conflicts and sadness in the world, it is encouraging to see there are stars that brighten darkness of our heart. We must keep them shining and let them grow even brighter.

Thank you very much for your interest in the newsletter.  Have a wonderful holiday season and keep warm!!

If you would like to contact Stellar Arts Foundation please write, phone or email to:

Stellar Arts Foundation
P O Box 1676, Coupeville WA 98239
(360)678-0838
www.stellararts.org

 Sincerely,

Akemi Walker

P.S. Please rest assured that your email addresses are safe with us!  We never disclosed them to anyone.     

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Stellar Arts Foundation Newsletter #1, August 2006

Hello Friends and Fellow Artists

My name is Akemi Walker.  In May this year, I participated in the Adventure Artist Tour to Bulgaria organized by Stellar Arts Foundation.  Although we are all back home and into our daily routine, I am sure I am not the only one who still think of donkey carts with red pompoms on their foreheads, a shepherd and the sheep in the fields of green, long and rustic cobblestone roads and a stork nesting on the top of a pole.  And I am also sure I am not the only one to say that above all the wonderful memories from Bulgaria, those that tugged my heart the most were the children of the orphanage.  For several years, Stella Canfield has told me so much about the children, but not until I saw their beautiful eyes and hugged their little bodies did I realize the weight of Stellar Art Foundation’s work.  I wanted to volunteer in some way, and thought that a quarterly newsletter description of the work of the SAF would be of interest to you.

Some of you who participated in one of the Adventure Artist’s Tours to Bulgaria would certainly remember the children of the orphanage, but others may not have heard about them.  So, in this first issue Stella Canfield and I will introduce the foundation’s philanthropic work for children without parental care and give you a bit of the history. 

When Stella Canfield visited her country of birth in 1989, nine years after her escape from communistic Bulgaria, she, by the chance of destiny, while visiting distant relatives in a village called Barzitsa, stumbled onto the orphanage.  Barzitsa, is located approximately one-hours drive from the Black Sea coastal town of Varna.  There were approx 80 children in the orphanage, aged from 1 to 18, living in very basic conditions.  Without the warmth of adult love, most of the children’s development was stunted, and when they become 18 years of age, they are required to leave the home most without skills or places to live.  The statistics show that 75% of them would eventually turn to the streets or lives of crime.  The children’s behavior evoked negative feelings and rejection from the people of the village.  Stella promised herself one day to do something about it.

In 200l, after over a year of tiresome paperwork, Stellar Arts Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization was born.  The purpose of the foundation is to raise funds through artist tours and to use those funds to finance projects for children in need.

In the following years, the foundation provided for minor building repairs and excursions for the children in the orphanage. 

In the summer of 2005, two college students from Coupeville, Washington went to the orphanage and stayed with the children for two months.  They fell in love with the children!  Lauren and Clark Bishop were married last week and are applying to go to the Peace Corp next year.  They hope they will be sent to Bulgaria

Also in 2005, with the advice of Dr. Jill Cole of Seattle (the liaison for Bulgaria with The Worldwide Orphans Foundation in New York www.orphandoctor.com ) Stellar Arts Foundation launched a project called “Home for Our Children”.  The project is based on a program developed by two Bulgarian psychologists, Mitko and Jivka Novkovi, who work for a non-profit organization in Sofia.  The Novkovis expressed an interest in presenting their program to older children, ages 6 to 18, in orphanage of Barzitsa.

In February this year, the project “Home for Our Children” was launched.  Mitko and Jivka Novkovi hired a part-time psychologist in the home of Barzitsa, a computer specialist and four retired women from the village.  They created classes for computer, sewing, painting, cooking, knitting, traditional dancing, history and culture.  The children were allowed to select the subject of their liking.    They eagerly responded to learning new skills, and bonded with the elderly ladies, whom they now call “Baba”, which means “grandma” in Bulgarian.  These wonderfully capable older people were impoverished by the inflation caused by the transition from communism to democracy.  Working with the children in the orphanage renewed their sense of purpose.  In return the constant presence of loving adults gives the children a sense of family.  They became a vital part of the project.

The project is helping the two most affected segments of the society: the children and the elderly.

At a computer students’ award ceremony this spring, which I was privileged to attend, the principal of the home, Mrs. Zlateva, expressed her gratitude toward Stellar Arts Foundation.  She said that as a result of the project “Home for Our Children” the behavior of the children improved greatly, which of course caused tremendous positive change in the atmosphere of the home.  The relationship between the people from the village and the children from the home is also working in a positive direction giving the children a better chance to integrate into society.

Presently, “Home for Our Children” is working to find an instructor of mechanics for a class for the older boys.  They will learn how to fix a bicycle, then a motorcycle and eventually cars.

In May while visiting the orphanage our group’s idea of folklore dance group emerged.  To help the orphans show what they are capable of was a very exciting thought!  We eagerly discussed ways to raise the money for that.  The Novkovis are already interviewing choreographers living in the neighboring towns of the orphanage.  The Ministry of Education granted the home permission to use the local school gymnasium for the purpose.  Before the next SAF trip to Prague in September, Stella will go to Bulgaria, to oversee the further development of this and the other ongoing projects.

The foundation’s goal is to help every child leave the home with a vocation license.  Every year three or four children graduate high school.  It will cost $400 to send a child, age 16 and up to a trade school for three months.  We also would like to sponsor an excellent student for a higher education.  It will cost $4000 per year including room and board.

Indeed many art instructors take their students to overseas painting trips but I believe Stellar Arts Foundation tours differ from others in one very important aspect.  While the primary purpose of most art tours is for the instructors’ own benefit, 100 percent of the proceeds from Adventure Artist’s Tours go directly to the welfare of the children in the orphanage.  Most of SAF art instructors choose to receive only the half of their normal fee and donate the other half to the SAF.  This way the money you pay for the art instruction on the Adventure Artist’s Tours goes to the projects for the orphanage.  Thus, by participating in the tour, you will not only enjoy all the excitement and instruction an artist tour can offer but also contribute to this great philanthropic project for children.

Stella Canfield’s work and arts instructions on the tours are entirely donated to the cause.

**** Stellar Arts Foundation would like to express heartfelt gratitude to the friends and art students for their generous one time donations and monthly donations, as well as for the many art & crafts materials, clothes, musical instruments, games and reading glasses.

 Special “THANKS” to “Daniel Smith” for the bunch of great art supplies.  You are our and many artists’ favorite art supply store!

 THANK YOU FROM THE HEART, DEAR FRIENDS!

TOGETHER WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THE CHILDREN IN THE WORLD ****