NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., May 30, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Art & Creativity for Healing has honored the Junior League of Orange County, Calif., Inc., (JLOCC) with its 2007 "Big Heart Award" for Outstanding Community Partner Organization. Founder and Director of Art & Creativity for Healing, Laurie Zagon, said, "Over the past six years the JLOCC has played an important role in helping our small nonprofit arts organization grow and flourish within the Orange County community. The support we have received from the Junior League members has been vital to the success of our organization."
According to JLOCC President Angie Rowe, the JLOCC Community Grants and Scholarship Committee has named Art & Creativity for Healing as a grant recipient for 2007, awarding $4,000 to contribute to the group's plans to expand the "Bedside Art Program." JLOCC contribution will be used to fund instructors and art materials in order to increase the number of children served from 400 children in 2006 to 800 children in 2007. "We want to help Art & Creativity for Healing to continue its mission of helping children coping with cancer to find solace and comfort, knowing that the community is rooting for them every step of the way," said Rowe.
Founded in 2000, Art & Creativity for Healing Inc. is a non-profit public corporation committed to helping children, teens and adults process their feelings of grief, illness or stress using the venue of painting on canvas. Art & Creativity for Healing provides free classes taught by Founder/Director Laurie Zagon and her team of highly qualified facilitators on-site at hospitals and non-profit community organizations.
Through programs offered in collaboration with more than 35 hospitals, treatment facilities and non-profit agencies, Art & Creativity for Healing has facilitated "Art for Healing" workshops for more than 14,000 children and adults in the Southern California region. The Zagon Method of Art & Creativity for Healing was originally developed in New York in 1987.
About the Junior League of Orange County, California, Inc.
The Junior League of Orange County, California, Inc. is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving the community through the effective action and the leadership of trained volunteers. JLOCC has contributed to Orange County by helping found organizations such as Orangewood Children's Home, and the Volunteer Center of Orange County, among others. JLOCC's purpose is exclusively educational and charitable. A 501(c)(3) organization, the JLOCC reaches out to women of all races, religions, and national origins. Originally founded in 1956 as the Newport Harbor Service League, the JLOCC is a member organization of the Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. To learn more about the JLOCC, call (949) 261-0823 or visit www.jlocc.org.