Thousands of Businesses and Individuals Raise Funds to Reduce Waste and Promote Art Programs

DANVILLE, Calif. – April 5, 2018 – The Crayon Initiative, a 501(c)3 national non-profit organization that remanufactures used crayons and donates them to art programs in children’s hospitals, announces today its annual fundraising and awareness campaign #ShareYourColors 2018 during the months of April and May. #ShareYourColors started three years ago in the spirit of Earth Day to bring together thousands of individuals, businesses, community organizations and schools to support The Crayon Initiative’s mission to preserve the environment and enrich the lives of hospitalized children through art and imagination.

“This campaign is about igniting individuals and businesses to support The Crayon Initiative by donating, volunteering and sharing their story online and with local media,” says Bryan Ware, founder and executive director of The Crayon Initiative. Businesses, organizations and schools across the country may support #ShareYourColors in the following ways:

1. Pay it forward. If you own a restaurant or retail business, install coin collection boxes at the registers. Offer a point of sale contribution such as $1 or percentage of sales donated to The Crayon Initiative. Introduce a limited time, specialty menu item such as a child’s dessert and donate a portion of sales. Download our Restaurant Program Guide to get started.
2. #ShareYourColors. Join our Facebook Art Crawl on April 1st – May 4th to share your artwork on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thecrayoninitiative/. Submit your photo of personal artwork with a description of what the art is, who made it and use hashtags #shareyourcolors2018 #crayonadvocates. The Crayon Initiative will give away selected merchandise to participants with a random drawing.
3. Conduct a crayon sorting event. This is a fun and lively event that gets everyone involved sorting all of those thousands of crayons! Partner with a local business to make a financial contribution and recruit volunteers to sort. Reach out to local media to tell your story about how your organization, school or business is helping the environment. Download our School Program Guide here.

Last month, The Crayon Initiative conducted a #ShareYourColors kick-off event in New York City with a crayon sorting and melting event for more than 50 volunteers including corporate partners A.C. Moore, Vodafone, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Wells Fargo, CSAA Insurance Group and Peloton.

The Crayon Initiative has collected more than 18.9 million used crayons from restaurants, schools and homes. The organization has provided a creative outlet for more than 75,950 kids in 123 hospitals across 31 states all while protecting the Earth. This year’s annual goal is to produce 250,000 packs of new crayons.

To get involved, visit The Crayon Initiative’s #ShareYourColors http://shareyourcolors.org/.