CdM Today: Fifth grader uses art to help other children

A Harbor View fifth grader is taking a different approach to the upcoming holiday season by channeling her love of art into fundraising for disadvantaged children in other countries.

Shea Tomac, 10, has created watercolor greeting cards for the past three years and sells them to family and friends for a profit. The money she makes goes to Heifer International, and this year specifically to the cause of sending girls to school. Shea filled orders for 275 cards and raised $550, which was matched by the organization.

This amount is enough to send four girls in India to school, who would typically be unable to attend.

“I wonder if they think, ‘Because of this, I get to go to school today…’ They’ve probably been spending most of their lives helping around the house, trying to make money. They’re going to finally come home one day, and their mom will say, ‘Hey guess what? You finally earned enough money to go to school.’”

Shea’s artistic talents developed at age 5, when she took a class at the Community Youth Center. Her mother, Jill Tomac, later found stickers and cards at a craft store, and Shea’s cards were so beautiful that she offered to buy them.

Shea said, “If you want to pay me, I can send that money to children who need help,” Tomac recalled.

This year’s record-setting sales came after an email sent to teachers at Harbor View Elementary School caught the eye of first-grade teacher Sabrina Ericastilla. Ericastilla invited Shea to visit her classroom recently to discuss her efforts to raise money, first buying two goats for families in Africa. She also read “Beatrice’s Goat,” a true story account of a girl in Uganda who was able to go to school after Heifer International gave her family a goat.

“They can get its milk,” Shea said. “They can drink it, and they can sell it, and when the goat has babies, they can sell those and make more money.”

Ericastilla said Shea’s presentation was moving, and that her first-grade students were intrigued by the story and by Shea.

“Shea had a big idea which changed the world by sending four girls to school,” first-grade student Pierce Barzi said.

Shea also told her fifth-grade classmates the story, she said, and some students said they were inspired to hold bake sales and other fundraising events to help the organization.

Making hundreds of cards to fill orders took hours, Shea said, but she kept thinking of the children she was helping.

“I wonder if that because of this, I well get them to go to school one day,” she said.

*

Packages taken from Corona Highlands

A thief stole packages from a home in the 400 block of Serra Drive at 7:40 p.m. Sunday, according to a police report.

The theft, with a loss of $245, was reported on Tuesday.

Thefts of mail and packages are more common during the holiday season, police said. To avoid becoming a victim, police advise to track your package deliveries so that you know when they are estimated to arrive at your home, to make sure that someone is home to receive the delivery or that a trusted neighbor is available to receive the package on your behalf, never to leave deliveries unattended on your front porch and to require signatures when having items delivered.

Corona del Mar Today appears Sundays in the Daily Pilot. Read daily updates at coronadelmartoday.com.