DTLR - BHM - 2023

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

BLACK HISTORY MONTH DOOR DECORATING CONTEST

DTLR Community Outreach chose to celebrate Black educators during Black History Month by hosting a social media contest to highlight educators’ classroom artwork for a potential reward of school supply support.

Educators were encouraged to submit their classroom designs celebrating Black history and culture in the form of classroom decorations, door art, or bulletin boards or student lead programs and performances. To enter for their chance to win, educators posted their artwork to social media tagging @daretoliveright and using the hashtag #DTLRMission1865.

DTLR’s Mission 1865 campaign, inspired by the year that the 13th Amendment was passed and ratified by Congress to abolish slavery, aims to provide opportunities and experiences for communities to learn and celebrate African American history and culture. We are ecstatic with all the submissions we received, and very proud to support the educators that are showing creative ways to engage our youth around Black History. DTLR will reward the winning educators with $500 gift cards where they can purchase necessities for educating the future. We will share the winners’ art on our social platforms, and DTLR.com.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH LOCAL SIP & PAINTS

This year, to celebrate our history we hosted a Sip & Paint series at select schools in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Working with pre-selected schools, Community Outreach commissioned local artists to teach the youth how to create their very own painted canvas. Videos of the Sip & Paint series were shared on all DTLR social platforms.

Dare To Live Right aims to revitalize schools’ declining art programs, as well as highlighting local Black artists for awareness and inspiration.

“Art has always been a way of expression within the Black community,” said DTLR Community Outreach Director, Tremayne Lipscomb Sr. “This year, we continued the Dare To Create mission, which was designed to inspire and highlight art within our communities, and to bring awareness to the significance of the year 1865 for the African American community.”

The joy of the students was overwhelmingly contagious at all four of the schools we attended.

We are eager to grow this initiative to more cities, schools, and students.

BHM: PAINT & SIP - WASHINGTON, DC

BHM: PAINT & SIP - PHILADELPHIA, PA

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ART HAS ALWAYS BEEN A WAY OF EXPRESSION WITHIN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

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DTLR COMMUNITY OUTREACH DIRECTOR, TREMAYNE LIPSCOMB SR.

BHM: PAINT & SIP - BALTIMORE, MD

BLACK HISTORY MONTH RAKE (RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS) DAY

Dare To Live Right partnered with Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere (R.A.K.E.), one of our favorite nonprofit organizations, formed by Cleveland native and comedian Ricky Smith, to perform a random act of kindness throughout the day. DTLR and Ricky Smith traveled around Cleveland to different organizations and communities to perform a random act of kindness, including donating $500 to a deserving unsung hero, dropping off donations to animal shelters, the Ronald McDonald House, and Children’s Hospital.

Rickey made our DTLR location a special stop, when he identified a single mother experiencing hard times, and gifted her a shopping spree at Target for essential items and our Steelyard location for fits for her and her children.

This donation serves as the kickoff to a new initiative DTLR Community Outreach is launching – the Community Champion Tour – that highlights different local individuals or organizations that make an impact in their communities. Every month, Dare To Live Right will choose a Community Champion in cities they serve and partner with them for a community service event or project, tag along for a day in the life of, and make a large donation to the organizations mission. This month marked the launch of the very first Community Champion – Ricky Smith, founder of Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere (R.A.K.E.).

RICKEY SMITH, Founder of R.A.K.E.