FIU students paint sneakers for Haiti’s children

Ever since Haiti was struck by the devastating earthquake of January 2010, FIU has remained committed to helping the island recover. Through its Hope for Haiti Task Force the university has overseen ideas big and small that have developed into long-term initiatives to assist the Haitian people.

One of these ideas – The Art of Giving (TAG), a multidisciplinary program among several FIU units – came about last spring during Diversity Week in assistant professor Jacek Kolasiński’s art class.

The project tasked students with decorating white Converse sneakers with original, uplifting art. In May, Dr. Pilar Martin, a clinical assistant professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, delivered some of those sneakers to the children of the Rose-Mina de Diegue Orphanage in Port Au Prince. A second trip was scheduled for the end of July to deliver more than 750 pairs of sneakers to three Haitian orphanages and a pediatric hospital.

“We did this in response to real urgency in our global neighborhood,” said Kolasiński, the new chair of the Art & Art History Department. “Our students are learning how to be global citizens. This program was a way for them to respond and participate in the recovery of Haiti.”

The desire to give back through art spread from one classroom to the rest of the university and the community at large. Throughout the spring and early summer, TAG events were scheduled on and off campus, drawing in crowds of FIU students, student-athletes, faculty, alumni and members from FIU fraternities like Pi Kappa Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi.

TAG events also were held in collaboration with the Overtown Youth Center, the Little Haiti Cultural Center and The Institute of Black Family Life. At each event, students and community members would gather to paint sneakers.

“We originally set this up as a one-day event in the Graham Center in April,” said Kelly Brady-Rumble, a grants specialist at the Frost Art Museum. “Jacek and I, in discussing FIU’s values and its role in our community, decided to reach into the community, to various youth organizations and schools. The project was very well received everywhere we took it.”