COMMENTARY: Creativity Can Offers Kids Opportunity to Give Back, Get Creative

Although arts and crafts remains one of the top categories year after year, tests such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking show that kids are becoming less and less creative. Last month at Toy Fair, I had the opportunity to meet with Creativity for Kids, who, in an effort to get kids back on track and do some good at the same time, has created the Creativity Can.

The Creativity Can is a small, cardboard container featuring a variety of traditional craft materials—such as pipe cleaners, yarn, googly eyes, and scraps of paper—and no instructions. The can encourages people of all ages to dream, imagine, and create whatever comes to mind.

Starting this spring, the Creativity Can is available free of charge at select retailers nationwide. (Click here for a list of retailers!)

So, there’s the get-back-on-track part. Now comes the do-some-good part. Kids are encouraged to share their finished creations online. For each submission, Creativity for Kids will make a donation to the LilySarahGraceFund, a charity devoted to supporting the arts and creativity in underfunded public schools. After losing his three daughters to a fire in 2011, Matthew Badger decided that the best way to honor them would be to support one of the things they loved most: art. Thus, the LilySarahGraceFund was born.

I don’t usually need an excuse to break out my art tote and get creative, but the Creativity Can provides a great opportunity for kids who do need an excuse or a little extra prodding to create an original project and share it so that their peers attending underfunded schools might one day get the chance to do the same.

For more commentary from Sierra, check back each Friday afternoon. Views expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Toy Book as a whole. We hope that you will share your comments and feedback below. Until next time!

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