Our causes and impact
Improving lives since 1990
In the past 32+ years, umbrella artwork rendered by creative people of all ages has generated goodwill and benefitted worthy causes that include children, families, veterans, communities and animals in need. Through our hands-on fundraising process, volunteers realize the importance of service while their artistic contributions create a positive difference in the lives of others.
The Umbrella Project Making a Difference
We've helped people and communities by:
- Working with Alice Cooper’s non-profit “The Solid Rock Foundation” in Phoenix. The Umbrella Project helped fund a summer program for the kids attending The Solid Rock Teen Center in Phoenix. This center provides art, dance and music classes for at-risk youth.
- Support, mentor and raise funds for the Havasupai School benefitting students in first through eighth grades in Supai, Arizona at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
- Creating an English to Havasupai Cultural Arts textbook which is the first of its kind, to help students learn their native language along with studying English.
- Donating funds to the Dogs4Vets program that trains disabled veterans’ own dogs so they become a certified service dogs. If the veteran does not have a dog, the program advocates the use of rescue dogs. This program ensures that dogs receive a loving home with a disabled veteran and provides much needed service for those vets.
Our Causes
For 2022 and beyond, we've expanded our fundraising targets beyond children to include veterans, animals and communities in need. Also, we have expanded our volunteer base beyond school-age children to include an artistic network of all types of groups and individuals of all ages. And, we are now focusing mainly on causes that improve life within the United States where we can make the greatest impact.
Dogs4Vets enables disabled veterans to live a more productive life. All dogs receive training while veterans receive assistance only a dog can provide.
2015: Technology for la Guardia School in Costa Rican Rainforest
High school students in Arizona created umbrellas for this project and a small group of these students traveled to Costa Rica with The Umbrella Project staff to mentor La Guardia /school students in creatin their own unique umbrellas. The Umbrella Project donated much needed technology for the school so the children can learn about computers and the internet.
2016: Grand Canyon Service Project
Arizona high school students travelled with the Umbrella staff to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to support mentor and raise funds for the Havasupai School.
2017: Solid Rock Teen Center Summer Program
The Umbrella Project partnered with The Solid Rock Foundation founded by rock legend Alice Cooper, to create one-of-a-kind umbrellas that were auctioned at Alice Cooper’s annual Christmas Celebration. Funds from the sale of these umbrellas funded a summer arts, dance and music program for at risk youth in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
2018, 2019, 2020: Havasupai Cultural Arts Program
The Havasupai Cultural Arts Program was a multi-year mission to develop a Cultural Arts Program that would provide the Havasupai School children (grades K through 8th grades) with much needed educational tools and experiences.
2018: Art Book
The Umbrella Project took 12 students from Canyon View High School in Waddell, Arizona to work with the Havasupai School students in Supai, Arizona on art projects and community service. During 2018 the UP developed an Art Book and markers for Kindergarten through 3rd graders focusing on pictures of birds, animals, plants and landscapes native to their environment. The children used this artbook to help them illustrate Cultural Arts t-shirts and umbrellas.
2019: Cultural Exchange Program
The UP took 10 Havasupai School students to spend two days at Canyon View High School in Waddell, Arizona. During the day, students participated in workshops including clay making, agriculture, watercolor painting and learning to use 3D printers. Havasupai children experienced the school’s full-service media center and flexible, open-spaced learning environments. Day two students from Havasupai and Canyon View spent a full day at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium in Litchfield Park.
2020: Language Arts Book
The multi-year Cultural Arts Program culminated with the development and distribution of a Language Arts Book to help kindergarten through 8th grade students learn their Havasupai language while increasing their skill and understanding of the English language. Full-color photos are incorporated throughout this book to help the youngest students as they learn to read English as well as their native Havasupai; the book can be used more as a resource guide as students become more proficient in both languages. The book begins with the Havasupai alphabet and includes calendar months of the year, animals, reptiles, birds, etc. parts of the human body, colors, constellations, Desert Southwest Native American Tribes, places and things in the Desert Southwest, and plants of the Southwest.
2021: Wildlife Warriors Zoo
After Steve Irwin’s untimely death, his family continues his great work in saving Australia’s beautiful and unique wildlife. Please help us save these magnificent creatures.