Slideshow: CHAP Pop-Up Store Features Children’s Art
"I know how to sew anything and I have a lot of empathy for children," says Kathy McMahon, a retired elementary school teacher and volunteer at the Children’s Healing Arts Project (CHAP) holiday pop-up store in Portland. "Kids need art when they are facing physical challenges."
CHAP, which has been operating in the Portland area for almost seven years, works in partnership with hospitals, schools, community organizations and local businesses to offer hands-on, one-on-one and group art projects that help disabled, recovering and terminally ill children express the sometimes difficult emotions related to their conditions.
In addition, CHAP partners with organizations to operate pop-up stores around the Portland area as a way to showcase the artwork created by the children in their programs and raise money. For the second year in a row, CHAP has opened a special holiday-themed pop-up store in the Pioneer Place Mall which sells donated apparel from local companies such as Adidas, Nike and Columbia Sportswear. The clothing features kid-designed patches and art.
CHAP is a mostly volunteer-run organization, and a small yet dedicated contingent helped prepare the pop-up store for its recent opening on Black Friday. Kathy McMahon spent much of her day sewing child-designed patches onto new and second-hand gear.
This season, CHAP's pop-up store has a more prominent location in the mall, and the organizers are hoping to take advantage of the real estate. CHAP has turned to veteran retail sales manager and merchandizing guru Roxie McGovern, who has almost 15 years of retail management experience with Starbucks and Anthropologie, to help with design and display.
All of the proceeds from the retail sales go towards supporting children and their families, which is why the pop-up store is so important to CHAP.
CHAP Holiday Pop-Up Store
Hours and Location
- November 25th to Mid-January (exact closing date TBD)
- Pioneer Place Mall (Second Floor), 700 SW Fifth Avenue, Portland
- Open Sun 11am–7pm, Mon-Sat 10am–9:30pm
"The space is much, much larger than last year," says Meghan Neil, manager of CHAP's Art Factory, a customized warehouse where ill children come to express their art in a nurturing, supportive environment. "I think that having a larger retail space will help us to get the word out."
"That's one of our really big goals — to let people know about the 'Hospital Program' and the great work that goes on there," adds Neil. "The more people that we can share what we do with, the better."
© 2011 OPB
