up-date on the child from New York who is raising money:
Fifth-grader from New York raises $60,000 for Gulf oil spill fight
By Daniela Werner, Press-Register June 08, 2010, 5:00AM
Olivia Bouler, a 10-year-old who lives in New York, has spent summers at her family's home in Orange Beach. Saddened by what the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was doing to area wildlife, including the birds she's loved for years, she began creating pictures of birds to raise money for the coast, and claims to have raised $60,000 so far. A young Islip, N.Y., artist said she has raised $60,000 by sending her sketches and paintings of birds to people who donate to organizations helping protect the Gulf Coast from the massive oil slick.
"It's very time consuming," said 11-year-old Olivia Bouler, "but everything's for the birds."
The fifth-grader will send an illustration to those who donate to The Audubon Society, The Sierra Club, The Weeks Bay Foundation, The Mobile Bay Estuary Program or The National Wildlife Fund.
View full size(Image via Facebook)Bouler's original letter to the Audubon Society.There will be a limit of 500 originals sent out because of the volume of requests, according to her parents. In the future, though, people may be able to purchase prints of Olivia's work on the Audubon website, her mother said.
The Audubon Society is overseeing the donation process, according to Nadine Bouler. She and her husband, Jim, have promised to send the originals to those who send them receipts of donations to any of the five organizations. The family has already mailed out about 130 drawings and raised $60,000 for the groups, Nadine Bouler said.
When Olivia, who has grown up vacationing on the Gulf Coast, heard about the oil spill's devastating effects on wildlife, she immediately wrote The Audubon Society to offer the proceeds from her artwork.
As word of Olivia's philanthropy spread, the Bouler household has been bombarded with messages from people cheering the young artist on.
On school days, Olivia heads home to do her homework before working on her paintings.
continued...
blog.al.com |
