(LOS ANGELES – February 22, 2012) — Chronically-ill children at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) had the opportunity to meet some of their favorite Disney Channel stars today during a morning of activities co-hosted by Disney VoluntEARs from Disney Interactive Media Group, and CoachArt.

Approximately thirty CHLA patients participated in the events that featured playing Disney’s hit game, Where’s my Water? for iPad; making online art on Disney.com’s Create; and Disney arts and crafts activities that included learning how to draw a penguin from Disney’s Club Penguin online virtual world for kids. The children also posed for photos with visiting Disney Channel stars.

Twenty-five Disney VoluntEARs helped the children with the morning’s activities.  Each Disney employee was trained before volunteering by the Los Angeles nonprofit CoachArt, and learned how to work with chronically-ill children in a hospital environment.

“At CoachArt our mission is to improve the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses and their siblings, by matching them with mentors to provide free lessons in the arts and athletics,” said Thyonne Gordon, CoachArt’s executive director.  “Based on our decade of experience, we also train volunteers how to work with chronically-ill children.  We are thrilled that our assistance with Disney’s VoluntEARS resulted in such a successful event.”

“My work at Disney, coupled with my volunteer work as a CoachArt board member, came together this morning at CHLA,” said James Pitaro, co-president, Disney Interactive Media Group. “I hope we were able to bring joy to the children and their families, and that they liked meeting some of their favorite Disney television stars and playing with our games and art activities.”

CoachArt PARTICIPANT OSCAR B., AGE 6, FROM OAKLAND was one of many chronically ill children who had an opportunity to take to the ice during “Friday Night Ice” at the Oakland Ice Center January 20.

(Oakland, CA – January 31, 2012) — Approximately 20 chronically ill children from the East Bay area affiliated with CoachArt, an Oakland nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, and their siblings, by providing free lessons in the arts and athletics, had an opportunity to try ice skating and other ice-related activities, during “Friday Night Ice” at the Oakland Ice Center on January 20.
In partnership with Special Skaters, a program affiliated with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of the Golden Gate, and with volunteers to help the skaters from San Francisco-based EventBrite, CoachArt’s participants were able to experience ice skating, many for the first time. They also had fun playing games such as mini Olympics, kite flying on the ice and broom ball. “It’s always a thrill to see our students experience an activity like ice skating that’s new and exciting,” said Ashley Fontanetta, regional director of CoachArt’s Oakland office. “United Cerebral Palsy is one of our health care partners and when we reached out to their Special Skaters program at the Oakland Ice Center, they went out of their way to accommodate our group and provide a fun and engaging night of skating complete with bubble blowing on the ice and a pizza party!”

EventBrite, a San Francisco-based company that enables people all over the world to plan, promote, and sell out any event; discover events, and share the events they are attending with the people they know, organized 15 staff members to volunteer by assisting the skaters. “We couldn’t have had a successful experience on the ice without the aid of the EventBrite volunteers who helped with everything from assisting the children on the ice, to organizing the pizza party,” Fontanetta continued. “CoachArt’s volunteers are the backbone of our programs. We rely on their assistance to allow us to offer the wide variety of programs that help chronically ill children take their minds off of their illness and just have fun.”

CoachArt’s mission is to improve the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses and their siblings, by providing free lessons in the arts and athletics. CoachArt matches volunteer mentors with its students to provide lessons based on the child’s preferred activity.

For the past ten years, CoachArt has served more than 2,500 children and has managed 15,000 donated volunteer hours consisting of 665 volunteers, and more than 78 program partners. To find out how to become involved with CoachArt as a volunteer mentor, or to take part in the activities, please visit www.CoachArt.org or call 510-992-3485.

Even if you can’t attend the Champion Ball, you can still help make wishes come true! Click on the Wish Tree to support a CoachArt Child!

Hosted by Maria Menounos

Special Guest Kevin Nealon

featuring Chante Moore

Thursday, October 20, 2011
Six O’Clock in the evening
The Beverly Hilton

Learn more here

Hosts: Kate Miller and Amanda Krentzman

Be sure to join Kate and Amanda for anything they do because the Young Hollywood Rising Stars event was a huge success!

Coming out to support CoachArt young entertainment industry professionals gave it their all purchasing tickets and donating to make sure chronically ill youth have a chance to play in the arts and athletics.

For photos and a summary of the event, check out www.giltcity.com

Date: August 6^th from 9pm-2am

Location: Siren Studios Rooftop (6063 W sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA)

Who: 250 young agents, assistants, managers, executives and talent from the top entertainment companies like WME, CAA, NBC, ABC, Dreamworks, BWR PR, etc.

For more information visit www.giltcity.com

Or

Contact Kate or Amanda at Kate.miller@electus.com

Your support will give 50 deserving children suffering with a chronic illness a summer camp experience they will never forget! Donate NOW at Indiegogo.com

Playing and attending summer camp seems like a natural part of being a kid, but for a child battling an illness it is often the exception–not the rule. This is where CoachArt comes into play. CoachArt improves the quality of life for chronically ill youth and their siblings, by taking their minds off chronic pain & isolation, and getting them back in the game of life, through play. CoachArt provides FREE personal lessons in the arts and athletics taught by volunteer mentors. This summer CoachArt is offering 50 youth a summer camp experience at NO COST. This isn’t just any summer camp. Specifically designed to cater to the special needs of this population, the expertise of physicians and nurses has been solicited to provide the best environmental conditions for patient participants. Their choice prescription: lots of laughter & play. Research shows that laughter is healing, play is productive and putting a smile on the face of a child can improve their health and possibly even extend their life. This is why CoachArt exists. But play doesn’t stop at the patient. We’ve learned that the art of play benefits the volunteer mentor, siblings and the entire family. At CoachArt, we call this, “The Art Of Improving Lives,” and it’s why we continue to expand our community of care. But, we need your support to continue and bring arts & crafts, sports and fun to our campers.

CoachArt Collective Celebrates its launch with

A NIGHT OUT

Saturday, May 22, 2010 – 8:00 pm
California African American Museum
600 State Drive – Exposition Park at USC

featuring

KCRW DJs

Tom Schnabel and Raul Campos

Presented by

Kelton Research

Tickets: $60

Purchase tickets at www.coachart.org

or call (213) 736-2850

Ticket price includes drinks and hors d’ouevres. Party Attire

Recognizing the work of The Sickle Cell Disease Foundation of California.

Event sponsored by JLP Tequila.

Click HERE for sponsorship opportunities

CoachArt: Improving the lives of chronically-ill children.

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