A Melrose family with ties to Follow Your Art Community Studio recently made a generous donation of $1,500 to Arts for All to support financial and adaptive assistance so that everyone can access creative arts programming. How they made the donation, though, is where it really gets fun.
The Bellem Family hosted their 12th Annual Cornhole Tournament fundraiser at the end of October. The event has grown from just a family event for fun to a 64+ team tournament that raises around $10,000 each year. Most of the donations go to Communitas, a non-profit organization that supports people with developmental disabilities and their families in Eastern Middlesex communities, but the Bellems also donate some of the proceeds to another organization close to their hearts each year. In 2024, they chose FYACS.
The Bellem’s 15 year-old daughter Charlotte was diagnosed with intellectual/physical disabilities and autism. “As we started to navigate the very complex world of figuring out how to support, educate, and care for her, we also wanted to find a way to give back to organizations that helped us and other families in a similar situation,” shared Charlotte’s mom, Sarah Bellem. “The event is an annual reminder of the wonderful community we have.”
This year, Sarah reached out to Follow Your Art Community Studios with an idea. Part of the family’s annual cornhole event is a raffle, and one of the items is cornhole boards handmade by Charlotte’s dad, Chris . “We thought it would be fun to have an artist paint them or have some kids work together to paint them,” Sarah said.
Nicole Morse, Coordinator of the FYACS Create Your Opportunity Program, brought together high school artists Jenna Allwood and Marlowe Price to design the artwork for the boards. In early October, they met up with Charlotte’s sister Ivy and a few friends at Follow Your Art to paint the final product together.
“We are so grateful to the Bellems for their generosity and for including us in the design of the boards. This has really been a full circle process that embodies the spirit of Arts for All, and their donation will make financial assistance and adaptive support available to even more families,” said Kris Rodolico, Executive Director of FYACS.
“We raised money for the blue swing in the playground behind FYACS a few years ago and last year we raised money for a wheelchair bike. This year, we thought it would be great to donate to Arts-for-All since our family (especially Ivy!) loves everything you’ve been doing in Melrose and we want to support accessibility to the arts for everyone!” shared Sarah Bellem.
This year’s raffle for the cornhole boards ended up raising $1500 towards Arts for All, which will also be matched by Sarah’s employer. “Everyone was so impressed and my dad ending up winning them, so it’ll be fun to have them be in the family!”
To learn more about Arts for All or to request financial assistance or adaptive accommodations, visit fyamelrose.org/arts-for-all