Art from the heart — celebrating ECE’s third annual charity auction
Last spring, the Shanghai Community International School’s Early Child Education (ECE) community was able to raise over 100,000 yuan (US$15,600) by way of the third Annual Charity Art Auction. Through a live auction of student artwork, a silent auction of community sponsor donations, and ticket sales, the funds raised were transferred to Heart to Heart Shanghai, one of the city’s most active charity organizations. This elegant evening was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the artistic talents of our school community, celebrate the school year and bring together parents and teachers in a fun social setting, all while supporting the efforts of this worthy charitable cause.
Founded in 2003, Heart to Heart Shanghai is a community organization that provides support and financial assistance to underprivileged Chinese children requiring heart surgeries to repair congenital heart defects. To sponsor one child’s heart surgery costs 25,000 yuan. This amount is very modest in comparison to the cost of similar operations in many other countries. However, many families in China (particularly those living in rural communities) are not fully covered by medical benefits and are unable to raise the money for the operations their children need. In fact, the families Heart to Heart supports generally make a combined family income of 3,000 to 6,000 yuan.
Over the summer break, we were delighted to receive news that two of our sponsored children had just finished their surgeries and were well on their way to a full and healthy recovery. We were invited to drop by Yodak Cardio Thoracic Hospital for a visit and personally met 7-year-old Gong Jue Song Lang and 18-year-old Ren Zeng Zhuo Ma, along with their families who travelled over 5,000 kilometers from Ali, Tibet to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. More recently, 11-month-old Ran Haochen, from Shandong Province, was admitted to Yodak Hospital and will undergo his surgery soon before his first birthday, becoming ECE’s third child sponsored this year. With the funds remaining, we expect to sponsor at least one more child.
For three years now, this initiative has been a massive success, raising over 250,000 yuan for charity and providing nine life-saving heart surgeries, in addition to supporting various other local charity organizations and the volunteer work of our greater school community. It has grown from one single event to something much larger. This success has been possible only through the hard work, generosity, and continued support of our students, parents, faculty, and community sponsors. Through this initiative, we have grown in our philanthropic spirit and have continued to model global citizenship for our students.
This new school year, we hope to continue promoting social responsibility. We continue to look for more ways for our school community to support such initiatives and we welcome all who are interested in getting involved.
To find out more about this wonderful organization and how you can become involved, check out http://heart2heartshanghai.net. For more information regarding ECE’s Charity Art Auction, check out http://hq.scis-his.net/content/ece-art-auction.
(Jeffrey Ginter is ECE
Development officer at SCIS.)
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