To serve children and their families in the Nashville area by providing scholarships and financial assistance toward individual and / or family therapy, trauma recovery, and creative arts which can help children heal, grow and thrive, such as dance, art, and music lessons.

Class was almost over. My dance teacher stood in front of the mirror and demonstrated the graceful bow that signaled it was time to go home. My heart sunk. Home. The last place I wanted to be. I loved being in the dance studio. Dancing brought me to life. With every leap I felt like I could fly and with every turn across the floor I was free. With every rhythmic tap I heard the echo of a hundred classes I had taken. Sometimes I even helped my teacher with the younger students. But when classes ended, so did my reprieve. 

My childhood, like so many, was full of trauma that we don’t want our children to even know about. When I look back to that little girl slowly walking home from the dance studio, headed back to chaos, I see how detached I was. How lost I was. How sad. When I was dancing, I could express the emotions that my words never dared. What gave me hope during my days away was just knowing I would be back in a dance class again soon. I was safe there. 

When I was older, I often wondered how we managed to pay for those ballet, tap, and jazz dance lessons for all of those years. My family struggled from one financial disaster to the next. Poverty and uncertainty weighed on my tiny shoulders throughout childhood. I was and still am grateful for all those classes, hours, days, and years in that little dance studio in Nashville. But I couldn't imagine how my family afforded it all. I was a young adult when I learned an unsuspected truth. My family had never paid for those hundreds of hours in the dance studio. An anonymous someone paid for all of those dance lessons the whole time. They saw a little girl in need and they gave. They saw me. They somehow knew that this young creative child needed a place to fully be herself. A safe place to create through movement and to feel a bit of hope in an otherwise languishing existence. They gave hope to me, and when I learned the truth I knew that I had to become that person for others like myself. My childhood self.  

Part of healing our own trauma is knowing that we can be a part of others’ healing journey. This part of my story is what inspired Advocate for the Creative Child, a nonprofit to help support children without means to have dance, music and art lessons, as well as therapy. 

Imagine a world where we all multiply the impact of our healing story by helping others find their way, even if they never know who it was who made the donation, the loving support they needed. 

I would love for you to join me and be an Advocate for the Creative Child too. 

Blessings Always,

Stacy

A department of Artists for Community Transformation Intl
www.ArtistsforCommunity.org

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