teach heal bless
The Blue Bead is a 501c3 whose mission is to use art, storytelling, music and more to teach, to heal and to bless. For more than a decade our community has been using its creative talents to make a positive difference in this world. We believe that great change is possible and it is the dreamers, the artists and the storytellers who are the ones to make that happen.
Past
Present
Future
In 2006, Kate and Ted first collaborated on the creation of an eight foot wide ‘weaving loom’ to benefit ‘The Red Thread Project’ and ‘Gilda’s House’ both national movements that brought about awareness for cancer patients and survivors. At that time we realized awareness was brought about more easily if ‘art’ could capture the imagination.
Weaving the world’s largest knitted cap was a way to unite those who wore one as allies to those who were losing their hair from chemotherapy. That one project drew attention, caused controversy, conversations and delight. It also attracted media attention, and brought together people who helped to weave the hat on that giant loom to tell their individual stories. The blessing was found not just in funds raised but it included what was being taught in human scale and the blessings went beyond that one cause. So many hats were made by people that it went on to bless the homeless, preemies in the ICU and raised money for the two causes that had united under this one giant knitted cap. In that year, that project and others like it caused the Michigan Retailers Association to give Kate the ‘Michigan Small Business Retailer of the Year Award’. The first of many accolades that convinced us that art was what we wanted to do and be. (see more)
This year we have had the good fortune of reaching a wide and diverse population as we continue our mission. Since the beginning of the year, we have been focused on the plight of homeless and runaway youths. Locally and Globally.
Part of this is sharing our Mission as we travel and do art, make music and tell stories in support of our broader mission. Highlights of the year have been to be featured at ConVoCation, the largest and oldest Spiritual Festival, the Asian Pacific Festival, The Global Water Festival, Michigan Multi-cultural Festival. For our tenth year, we were featured at Wheatland, Michigan's largest and longest running Music Festival where we created and gave away over 100 didgeridoos and told the story of Nungeena in music and traditional storytelling.
Locally, we continue to collect and donate hundreds of pounds of food to individuals and food banks, organize neighborhood clean-ups, donated hundreds and hundreds of plants again to encourage pride of place in poverty stricken neighborhoods.
Online and in participation with neighborhood organizations and Habitat for Humanity, we continue to lobby for cessation of unbridled gentrification, and, as we said of this year, our local problems of runaway and homeless youth.
Online, in our Patreon, and in groups, we continue to tackle subjects subjects like racism and slavery through story-telling, hidden histories and even recipes that highlight little known facts that Teach, Heal and Bless.
Welcome to Our House! Our literal home base will be turned into a command center for all things Blue Bead. We will be blending our on-line and in person events to continue to reach as many people as possible.
As much of what we do has so much background material, details, fascinating backstories and connections, we will continue to compile it all to create a community for people who want to know more, heal more and bless more. This will be available on the Patreon Platform.
All this, while we grow the organization in the most transparent, ethical, moral and artistically free model of a non-profit we can imagine. We hope you will join us.
