By: Emily von Buttlar
Senior Brianna Cronyn created an non-profit organization called Art for a Heart to raise money for children’s cardiac care, people who have heart conditions that need to be treated and children that are recovering from heart related medical problems. She uses art and creativity to help families around the world who need heart surgeries and other types of care. Her company partnered with Save a Child’s Heart, a global non-profit organization who also provides cardiac care to those who would otherwise not have healthcare.
“I started this a little over two years ago,” Cronyn said. “I’ve always been interested in medicine and public health but I didn’t know what I wanted to do until my dad has his own heart problem and I realized how important it is to have cardiac care. “
The company is a non-profit and provides families with cardiac surgeries regardless of gender,sexual identity, religion and more.
“I started thinking about places where you can’t just call 911 or people don’t have hospitals equipped to help you right away or fear they can’t afford health care.” Cronyn said
She reached out to Rosen Gallery and art studio in Hermosa Beach to team up with them to sell her art to make money. She also talked to a lot of her teachers, who helped her build her website as a way to make the information about her cause more public. Cronyn’s website is www.artforaheart.studio/ , where people can find out more information and donate.
“I was thinking [about] what I can do as a 16 year old.” Cronyn said. “I started building relationships with a lot of different galleries and made contacts and started building a website and coming up with events.”
Cornyn makes art to give away to charities and gives art to those who donate more than $50 to her organization or Save a Child’s Heart through either of their websites. She also works with different art studios around the community to sell her art and all the money she makes goes to Save a Child’s Heart.
“I thought I could use my art to make a difference because I’ve always liked doing art to give away to charities. I feel like it’s a positive outlet,” Cronyn said.
Cronyn had a Valentine’s Day fundraiser where she raised over $2,500, surpassing her goal of $2,000. All of the money she raised went straight through the Save a Child’s Heart website so they would receive it directly.
“Anyone who donated over $50 would get a customized heart painting with unique colors” Cronyn said.
Since the start of the creation of her organization there have been some challenges, yet she has been able to overcome them. One of the challenges she faced was researching how to start an organization from scratch.
“It’s really difficult to figure out how everything works and how to register as [a] non-profit and build a website and transfer funds,” Cronyn said. ”The most difficult challenge is finding how to get a good footing and actually building the infrastructure.”
People can donate through her website or the Save a Child’s Heart. They can also buy commissions and the money will go to Save a Child’s Heart so they can continue to provide life-saving surgeries for those who need them.
“Sometimes it’s a little difficult working with non-profits when you find people turn them down. It’s always a little painful because it happens a lot.” Cronyn said, “Once you meet one nice person who is interested and actually wants to do something, it makes it one-hundred times better than all the negativity.”
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