Taylor (Tae Tae) Davis, Palmetto Bay resident and a freshman at Coral Reef Senior High School received the Soroptimist Club’s Violet Richardson Award on Wednesday, Mar. 21, during a presentation at the Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables.
Davis, an accomplished 14- year-old artist in the school’s magnet art program, is well known in the community for her charitable projects benefiting art students and children in homeless shelters. The Violet Richardson Award is a recognition program for young women ages 14-17 engaged in volunteer action within their communities or schools.
Shirley Millar, Violet Richardson Award chair of Soroptimist International of Coral Gables, explained the background of the award and why Davis was chosen.
“It is named for the president of the first Soroptimist Club,” Millar said. “Each year, Soroptimist clubs honor girls who donate their time and energy to causes that make the community and the world a better place.”
Her community service activity began when she was 12 years old, raising money and supplies to help the art program at her middle school.
Her non-profit organization, called “The Traveling Canvas-painting the world a new color,” evolved. She sponsors art parties for children every six weeks at a homeless shelter, providing food and art supplies. Davis is working on a program in a hospital to provide artwork for the walls in rooms of cancer patients.
Completed projects are “Dream in Color” in which 200 homeless children received hand-painted pillow cases and “A Day Made Better for the Arts,” which raised $3,500 worth of art supplies to help put an end to “teacher-funded classrooms.”
After a dinner at the country club, Carol Van Orsdel introduced Davis before she gave her speech, and later had praise for the remarkable student.
“I was honored to have been asked to introduce her,” Van Orsdel said. “It was a pleasure and inspiration to meet her. What an incredibly mature and generous young lady Tae Tae is.”
Davis received $500 from the club and is now eligible for the regional-level awards to be held in Atlanta. The regionallevel cash prize is $1,000 given to the honoree to support her leadership development and an additional $1,000 given in her honor to the organization of her choice. Each regional-level honoree then becomes eligible for the federation-level award of $2,500 given to the organization of her choice.
Davis was excited about the recognition from the international organization and what it means to her on-going projects.
“Receiving an award like this empowers me to keep up with my work and continue to spread awareness of my non-profit, The Traveling Canvas,” she said.
For information about the Soroptimist Club visit: <www.soroptimist.org>. To learn more about the Traveling Canvas visit www.thetravelingcanvas.com.
