Portraits For Hope

Kaytee Esser is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Jacklyn Overby.

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I am a portrait artist and citizen of Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville is a wonderful place to live with the St. Johns river and the ocean nearby. The city is beautiful and for the most part, so are the surrounding neighborhoods of Springfield, Avondale, San Marco, La Villa. But Jacksonville has a dark side and that is in areas where the quality of life is a constant struggle. Our local news reports on this in excess and that is seems to make it worse. The most disturbing is when a young life is lost to violence because that affects not only the families but the entire community. Since 1998 there have been 660 young people under the age of 21 killed in our city and that does not include this year.

So I decided to use my talent and the talents of our local artist community to raise awareness of this issue. Together we are building several (50) displays that will hold 10 painted portraits each of the children who have died by violence each year. The money raised for this cause will buy art supplies, the materials to build the display, and a small incentive to the artists for their time and talent. The end result is to have 500 finished painted portraits that will initially be displayed in a downtown/public building of Jacksonville with the ultimate finale' of giving each painting to the victims family.

I am working through Compassionate Families, a local non-profit that helps the families of these victims. It is up to each one of us to stop this cycle of violence using the talents that we all possess. I would like our news to be filled with the love and beauty we have in our city and what we as citizens do to make this a place where people could pursue life, love and happiness. I hope this project will be an eye opener for most Jacksonville residents.

Thank you for helping me provide this message to Jacksonville and together let us celebrate life.

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