Arts for Hearts Sends HeART Kits to Ukrainian Orphans

Clarksville, TN – Arts for Hearts volunteers gathered at Sanctuary on Main to put together 120 HeART Kits for Little Hearts to send to Ukrainian orphans displaced from the war with Russia.

The HeART Kits contain watercolor paints with a brush, boxes of crayons, regular and watercolor paper, colored and graphite pencils, pencil sharpeners, pipe cleaners, assorted ribbons, stickers, yarn and tags.

In addition, colorful artwork created by students at Norman Smith Elementary, Glenellen Elementary, Oakland Elementary, and Chapel Hill Christian Academy was included in each kit. Some students looked up how to write greetings in the Ukrainian language to add to their pictures.

U.S. Navy veteran Frank Tate, who helped evacuate orphans from Kyiv in the first week of the war, is taking the two duffle bags of kits on his return trips to help the children. Tate is working with the Nashville nonprofit, Aerial Global Recovery Group, which set up refugee camps outside Kyiv. The group has moved hundreds of orphans out of harm’s way.
 
State Senator Bill Powers and the Clarksville-Montgomery County Arts and Heritage Development Council, the umbrella nonprofit that sponsors Arts for Hearts, provided the funds to pay the extra baggage fees for the kits.
 
Arts for Hearts volunteers who worked on this project headed up by Barbara Kane and Rita Arancibia were Margaret Adames, Carlette Hardin, Kristi Huang, Joyce Downey and Ellen Kanervo.