Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Monet-maker Lauren supports kids’ charity
A BUDDING young a rtist is having her first brush w it h success a fte r designing T-shirts to be sold off to raise cash for less fortunate children.
Although she is just seven, Lauren Chesters has already produced a large selection of paintings – and now she’s using that talent to raise funds for Dundee Bairns.
She has even copied the works of famous artists, and among her favourites are Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh.
Her dad, Graham, said the High School of Dundee pupil was self-taught and had been painting for six years.
Graham said: “Lauren loves to paint. I have an art studio and Lauren has already taken that over. Our house is also full of her work.”
Graham explained that when lockdown began Lauren decided she wanted to do something to raise money for a good cause.
He said: “Lauren and I began to look at ways of doing this. We decided that we could reproduce some of Lauren’s art work on T-shirts and sell these to raise funds.
“We looked at local children’s charities and Lauren decided on Dundee Bairns because she liked the idea of the work they did helping to provide meals for children in the city less fortunate than herself.
“Lauren set herself the target of selling 100 T-shirts. She has received a very positive response to her fundraising bid and has already sold 62 with all profits going to Dundee Bairns.
“She has now presented them with £635.”
David Dorward, of Dundee Bairns, said the group was very pleased with Lauren’s artistic efforts.
He said: “We are very grateful. She is only seven but knew she wanted to help other children in the city.
“The money she has raised is very welcome and will be a huge boost to our efforts.”
David said that as of the end of May Dundee Bairns had distributed approximately 17,949 lunches across 17 different projects, including community centres, churches, food larders.
He added: “During April, we also took delivery of 1,400 magazines from DC Thomson, which were delivered and distributed in two lots of 700 across our partner projects.
“As well as our other deliveries, 120 bags of shopping have been distributed weekly from April 13 to the Coldside and Rowantree Hubs, supporting some of the most vulnerable families in these areas.”