A Canvas of Resilience

Crayon Collection Unveils ‘Banners of Hope’ Project Across Pacific Palisades and Brentwood

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor 

Waves of color and messages of hope now line the streets of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, as local nonprofit Crayon Collection unveiled the Banners of Hope project—a community-driven effort.

Banners of Hope for Pacific Palisades invited area schools impacted by the January fire to create art that would be on display on light poles across the community. Students at each participating school worked to create one unique artwork—representative of their school—and chose three words to describe the future of the Palisades.

To celebrate the launch, Crayon Collection hosted a community event on Tuesday, June 3, with families, local educators and civic leaders. The event featured a live performance of “Hope” by Palisadian musician Joe Sumner, “honoring the strength and spirit of those impacted,” according to Crayon Collection.

“I feel like when I drive through the Palisades right now, it’s really not our community,” Crayon Collection Founder Sheila Morovati explained to the Palisadian-Post. “When I come through and I [see] ads for debris removal, or remediation or lawyers … It’s just not about our community and the people. There’s this togetherness that we wanted to bring about through these images that the kids are providing us within each school.”

Morovati hoped the artwork would provide a sense of community, joy and hope to those who have been affected and are navigating great loss.

“To be honest, it feels like it’s going to do a lot because as we drive through and see the rubble and all the depressing sights, just seeing what these kids have produced already has been so uplifting,” Morovati said.

Of the artwork that Morovati previewed ahead of the unveiling, she said three words stood out most: Love, Faith and Rebuild.

Now on display throughout Brentwood and the Palisades since the start of June, light pole banners feature the student-created artwork.

Participating schools include Palisades Charter Elementary, Marquez Charter Elementary, Methodist Preschool of Pacific Palisades, Kehillat Israel Early Childhood Center, Seven Arrows Elementary, Calvary Christian, Corpus Christi School, Village School and St. Matthew’s Parish School.

“The Banners of Hope project serves as a powerful reminder that hope and creativity can flourish even in the most challenging times,” Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a statement.

The banners will be up through the end of August. As a conclusion, Crayon Collection is also planning on replenishing every school’s art supply closet in August, in honor of #NationalCrayonCollectionMonth, “ensuring that students are equipped for the new school year.”

Crayon Collection was founded by Morovati, a resident of the Palisades, in 2010, with a mission to collect little-used or new crayons and donate them to children in need all over the country.

“Morovati’s daughter was a year-and-a-half old and a finicky eater when the two would dine at California Pizza Kitchen and be given a pack of crayons prior to their meal,” according to a 2014 Post article. “At such a young age, her daughter would scribble a bit and be done. Morovati noticed the staff would throw away the nearly new crayons along with the napkins and straw wrappers left on the table at the end of the meal.”

Over time, Morovati continuously noticed this trend in kid-friendly dining establishments. This led her to start collecting the discarded crayons off of tables. In September 2010, she expanded her efforts and became the founder of Crayon Collection.

Now, Crayon Collection serves 30,000 low-income youth annually and provides equal access to art education in vulnerable communities where art has been defunded. The organization has saved over 22 million crayons to date and has partnered with different institutions to offer art education to vulnerable schools.

Crayon Collection is currently accepting donations to support ongoing arts programming and community recovery efforts. For more information or to get involved, visit crayoncollection.org or contact info@crayoncollection.org.