A joint effort between Creative Spirit and McRae’s Sustainable Goods led to a number of community members coming together to send money from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific to help an island in need.
On Thursday, Sept. 7, the two businesses hosted a Paint for Maui fundraiser event at McRae’s. More than a dozen participants painted a view of the sun rising over the Maui coastline, all to do what they could to help the island that has been devastated by raging wildfires.
Peyton Pugmire of Creative Spirit spoke at the event about how raising even a small amount of money for a community all the way across the ocean can make a difference.
“It’s not a million dollars, but everything that we raise through this workshop will help in some way. We sit down and come together in community,” Pugmire said. “To help a person or community, there’s love and that energy is generated, a healing energy. That goes out into the universe and covers the world.”
Pugmire said the idea for the event came to him during a workout one day, when he decided that he wanted to help the people of Maui in any way possible.
“I just got an immediate hit of just ‘I want to help and let’s do a paint night where 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the Maui Strong Fund,’” Pugmire said.
He added that he had recently completed a watercolor painting of the sun setting over the ocean that was featured in an exhibit co-run by Pugmire at McRae’s, which was the painting example that he used for the Maui fundraiser. Pugmire led attendees through a step-by-step lesson on how to create the painting.
“I could easily teach that for folks who want to get both creative and helpful for Maui, so it was a perfect match,” Pugmire said.