Picasso Bat Mitzvah

My online bat mitzvah student recently had her big day where she excelled at singing her Torah portion which she had learned with me for about 10 months. She worked incredibly hard and achieved her goal of not only singing her Torah portion confidently in front of her friends and family, but she was also determined to work on a project that would help make this world a better place. You see when I meet students and explore the idea of helping them prepare for their special day, I talk about how a bar or bat mitzvah is not a race to the finish line with the finish line being the big day of the event. It really is a starting point for the rest of your life on how to be a great human being that helps the world around you and sharing your resources with the less fortunate for the rest of your life. The billionaire Warren Buffett says that he’s lucky. He’s lucky to be born in the United States of America where he feels he has every advantage. Had he been born in some rural part of Africa he feels he would not have become so successful and wealthy. My student feels incredibly grateful that she was born into a loving family in The United States who can afford to put a beautiful roof over her head, great food to eat, wonderful clothes. And my student is also very grateful because she likes art so much that her parents are able to afford to get her brand new art supplies to help her create magnificent works of art which brings her so much pleasure. She loves to hang them in her home and give them away to friends and family for their birthdays which brings her family and friends so much joy as well. But my online bat mitzvah student realises that there are kids who are not as fortunate whose parents cannot afford to buy them art supplies. So she was determined for her online bat mitzvah lessons project to find a way to get these art supplies to students who are financially deserving.

She was lucky enough to find online Recycled Art Supplies

According to their website, Recycled Art Supplies is a project launched in collaboration between Artist Mary Vasquez and The Artlands.

We plan on helping students who want to create art by helping them get the materials they would need for free. If you are a low income or your location prohibits materials from reaching you. Our job is to collect gently used or new art supplies and then redistribute them to those who could use them.

This project was created to provide Free Gently Used and New Art Supplies to low income art students in order to facilitate future creative minds.

Have you ever taken an art class, purchased the supplies and then decided it was not for you? This is where you can send those art supplies to someone who can use them. We aim to facilitate the materials in order for those who want to create them.

Twice a year at the beginning of the traditional school semesters in August and in February we aim to have drop off points and volunteers to package up and send the materials to those art students who need them.

My bat mitzvah student spoke about how she , her friends and her family donated gently used art supplies to this wonderful charity to give children the chance to draw and to paint who cannot afford to do so on their own.

My online bat mitzvah student has embraced the Jewish teaching of tikkun olam, making this world a better place one kind action at a time.