2000

• Team of seven volunteers joins founder Steffanie Lorig to do research with therapists, Child Life Specialists, etc. to make Oodles of Doodles a reality.
• Art with Heart receives a grant from the NEA for the InterGenerational Book Project

2001

• AIGA Seattle’s “Cutting Edge Fashion Show” benefits Art with Heart. Proceeds lay down the foundation to print Oodles of Doodles.
• Terrorist attacks in the U.S. prompts Art with Heart to begin research on creating a therapeutic book to help children affected by tragedies such as these.
• Volunteer Christi Williford spearheads the Project Peace Mail campaign that creates holiday greetings for victims of 9/11, imparting messages of hope and healing.

1999

• After hearing a story about a little girl with cancer, named Hallie, founder Steffanie Lorig has a dream about creating a book that would bring happiness and contentment to hospitalized children. Ideas for Oodles of Doodles start to percolate.
• Vice President, Laura Zeck, spearheads the InterGenerational Book Project which links together homeless children from First Place School with senior citizens to write and illustrate stories together in book form (held once a year through 2003).

1998

• Art with Heart’s first program, SoulFood, encourages creatives to step out of their studios to bring nutritious, gourmet meals to homeless teens at YouthCare’s Orion Center (held once a month, until 2005).
• Their second program, the Self Portrait Workshops, brings together Seattle designers and artists with homeless children. Initial community partners include First Place and YouthCare’s Orion Center. Through the years, Rotary Boys & Girls Club, Wallingford Boys & Girls Club, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s “Hutch School,” among others, are added to the list. Art with Heart hosts an average of 20 workshops per year until December 2006.

1997

• Art with Heart hosts their first Design Chat, entitled “Pro Bono…Without All the Hangups” to encourage designers to give back to their community using their time and design talent. From this event, a small, but dedicated committee begins meeting once a month.
• Art with Heart co-hosts a benefit auction to help pay for medical treatments for a local designer/illustrator’s child with a rare metabolic disorder, thus beginning their once-a-year fund-raising efforts.

1996

• Steffanie Lorig joins the Board of Directors of the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and chairs the Community Outreach Committee, which she dubs “Art with Heart.”