(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (bright music) - I really believe that the way we change the world is through the kids.

There you go, sis!

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

The Year of Horse is also, is also something that you can be, probably can be a little bit wild (laughs) in the horse spirit but in a good way.

(laughs) (bright music) - It makes my heart so happy, you know, knowing that us or a family member was able to help another person that was in need or wanted something.

- Maybe one big one here.

- [Maddison] Painting, like, sunsets.

- So yeah, it is theatre that moves literally and emotionally in some cases too.

- There!

- (gasps) Miriam!

- What?

- What are you doing?

- I mean, you did go a little nuts with the pink.

(all laughing) - So we are bringing the arts into the community.

(bright music) (audience clapping) (gentle music) (bright music) (Taylor knocking) - Hi, can I drop off a stuffed animal for him?

- [Parent] Yeah!

- Oh the gray one, the gray one.

You want this teddy bear?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

There you go, sis!

Let me do that one.

Got a stuffed animal for him.

My name is Taylor Cole, and I am the founder and president of Cuddles with Kindness.

Cuddles with Kindness, our main mission, I would say, is collecting and providing stuffed animals for kids in need.

That can be whether they're hospitalized, in a homeless shelter, foster care, whatever that traumatic situation might be.

Our goal is to provide them with a stuffed animal to provide them a little bit of normalcy in childhood through whatever they're going through.

I started it when I was eight years old.

I had gotten a stuffed animal while I was in the hospital.

It was a black and white panda bear.

And it had hearts around its neck, so I named it Hearts, (chuckles) 'cause I had gotten it on Valentine's Day too.

That just meant a lot to me for a kid who's going through something, you know, not normal, it's scary, you don't know what's going on.

Something like a stuffed animal just brings that sense of comfort for kids.

When I was 17 years old, my parents finally let me turn it into a nonprofit.

I always joke that I think my parents thought it was probably like a phase, like, "Oh, she's eight.

Like, she wants to decorate boxes and collect stuffed animals.

Like, no way is this gonna last forever."

But I think they finally gave up of me asking (laughs) and helped me set up the nonprofit when I was 17.

And I think throughout the journey I've been so incredibly lucky to be placed and have connections that just have really supported me in the process of growing Cuddles with Kindness.

Think it's just a stuffed animal, but it's, like, really so much more than just a stuffed animal.

They've been able to use our stuffed animals and show, like, the teddy bear getting an ultrasound or the teddy bear getting an IV or a PICC line, and just being able to use that.

It's more than just play, it's therapeutic play.

I'll just, I'll give her options.

There you go.

(Taylor laughs) - Unfortunately, my grandson had some health issues, and he had to have several blood draws.

And he was able, he was a recipient of several stuffed animals.

Every time he would go in for a draw, he would receive an animal.

It could be a bear, a dog, whatever, he always loved them.

It helped ease the scariness of the whole situation.

We all have experienced going to the hospital, and we know what it's like to not know what's gonna happen.

But if, you know, even as adult, if they could give us maybe a little stuffed animal, we might like it as well.

- [Taylor] They're so cute.

- I participate by hosting one of her bins, and then I will post on my social media for people to come donate a new, with the tag still on it, stuffed animal.

Doesn't have to be a bear, it can be any type of stuffed animal.

Any price range, anywhere from, say, $5 to, my grandson received a dog that retailed at $80, so there's all sorts of animals that are in there.

- Yeah.

Bye-bye.

I'll see you later!

See you later.

We do our annual Valentine's Day Drive for OSF Children's Hospital January through February.

So we encourage people to bring in new stuffed animals to either the drop-off location or one of the events.

And then we go around and collect all of those stuffed animals, sort and organize 'em.

And after all of that, we take 'em to the children's hospital the week of Valentine's Day, and the kids get 'em on Valentine's Day.

And then whatever's left over from that week is then distributed throughout the year.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

Happy early Valentine's Day.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

Distributing the toys is like, it's magical, I would say.

Stuffed animal for you guys.

Happy early Valentine's Day.

- Oh, that's beautiful!

We appreciate it.

- You can have a kid that is totally, you know, scared, crying.

And it's like they see that stuffed animal, and it's like, oh, like, oh, they've got a toy or, like, it's a stuffed animal.

Like, it just, the sense of, like, comfort and just relief that they see and seeing something so simple as a toy, it kinda just melts the other things away, and it's very fulfilling.

I think my eight-year-old self would be proud and probably amazed.

I don't think I ever thought it would become what it is.

That first drive, I was so proud of myself 'cause I collected like 30 bears.

(laughs) Now looking at it, I'm like, oh, wow, that wasn't that many.

But to me at that age, that was huge.

It was 30 kids, and it was bigger than just me.

Through doing Cuddles with Kindness and the connections I've made with Cuddles with Kindness, it led me to become a nurse, and now I'm a pediatric ICU nurse.

So, very much that experience has very much shaped who I am today.

All right.

Do you wanna pick out a stuffed animal?

One, I hope that we continue to grow, 'cause the more we grow, the more kids we can help and provide that sense of comfort for.

And I would love to see it, you know, eventually grow outside of just Central Illinois.

And then I'd say the second part is just hoping that we, again, reach the generations younger than us and teach kids the importance of giving.

One of the quotes I love is "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

And all it it takes is that starting point.

You just have to find what sets your soul on fire, what your passion is, and follow it.

- We appreciate it.

- [Taylor] You're welcome.

Have a happy early Valentine's Day.

(bright music) (lively music) (calming music) (gentle music) - I lived in a small village in North China where the Chinese New Year tradition is a two-week-long celebration.

It all kicked off with butchering the hogs and cooking the meats days in advance.

(lively music) - The Year of the Horse is a fantastic year because horse in Chinese tradition or Chinese culture, the horse symbolizes freedom, strength, energy, courage, perseverance.

So there's a lot of good things about the Year of Horse.

(bright music) - Today is a Chinese New Year Eve, so we'll celebrate Chinese New Year.

- We celebrate Chinese New Year for 15 days, and they are different things that we do on these 15 days.

For this year, the lunar calendar, the Year of Horse start on February the 17th.

There is a must-do, must-have, a thing in the agenda on the New Year's Eve, and that is the family reunion, New Year's Eve dinner.

And we call it (speaking Mandarin).

(bright music) I really like this event because we have a lot of family, a lot of friends here, and it's like a family reunion.

It's a bigger family (chuckles) reunion.

So we're going to eat a lot of food and we're gonna play games.

- Oh!

(laughs) - Oh!

- Traditional game like mahjong, the tile game.

We also play other game where, like, pick up money.

(people cheering and clapping) (people laughing and clapping) And also, kids will get the red pocket.

That's an important thing to all the kids.

Yes.

(speaking Mandarin) Red pocket give out to kids means good luck and happiness.

That's why the money in the red pocket.

The red represent happiness and good luck.

- [Dalin] So this is the Chinese New Year Eve.

(people chattering) - On the eve, we put up the couplets and make dumplings and stay up late watching the New Year gala on the TV, waiting for the midnight to set up the firecrackers to welcome the new year officially.

(group speaking in Mandarin) (lively music) - If you have a chance to go to our gala, and when we show you the costume.

(lively music) The way we celebrate bring people the happiness.

And we want to share that to other people.

We think that they are enjoying too.

(laughs) We do this gala to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

(warm music) The Year of Horse is also, is also something that you can be, probably can be a little bit wild (laughs) in the horse spirit but in a good way.

(laughs) Free and unafraid, and that's the theme song of our gala.

The closing song of this gala is a Chinese song, but there is a catching line say, "Be free and unafraid."

♪ Be free and unafraid The gala centers on three key elements.

We are celebrating the Year of Horse.

We're going to show you how a three-generation Chinese American family to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the United States, right?

- I've always wondered, why do Chinese people call Chinatown (speaking Mandarin)?

- And we are going to show you a lot of element in the Chinese culture.

But we don't forget to incorporate modern elements in the show.

So in short, we're going to create a lively and festive show to the audience.

We can't wait to deliver that to the audience.

(chuckles) (lively music) I was not the one that who started this tradition, but I would assume it was that because celebrating Chinese New Year, like have a gala to watch and participate, was in our tradition.

(drums thumping) (lively music) - We're from China.

It's really important to keep the culture going, especially, you know, in a Western country.

- Because the tradition is beautiful.

And it gives people, bring people their happiness.

(lively music) - It is the time of the year to drop the stress, relax, and look forward for a bright new year.

(both singing in Mandarin) (children chattering) - I'm Victoria McLean, and our company is Little Feet, Big Dreams.

(bright music) I'm the owner, the founder.

I pretty much do it all.

Maybe jellyfish too.

That'd be cute, huh?

- [Maddison] Oh, that'd be so cool.

- That's what it's missing.

- Little Feet, Big Dreams is a nonprofit.

We sell and paint shoes for kids in need and for kids that just want some shoes to have.

- We're all using blue, aren't we?

- Yeah.

- And we honestly, we didn't plan to all do something blue.

I started painting shoes in 2018 just as a supplemental income.

We lost a family member.

It does choke me up, but I love talking about my brother, Casey.

He was everybody's greatest friend but then also the best brother, the best son, the best uncle.

Literally my best friend, my only brother, who's two years older than me.

One thing about him is family was everything for Casey.

His daughter was the first pair of shoes I painted for.

And at her birthday party when she received them, everybody was, "Oh my gosh, you have to start selling these, you have to."

And so that's when I started selling 'em actually.

Casey had a traumatic brain injury from a work accident, and after so much time, it took his life.

A year after, I kind of was struggling just really understanding why, you know, why that it happened.

And I learned about art therapy and I started using it for myself with the shoes and then ran a promotion at the two-year of his passing to give them away for free.

And the need was heavy.

So just through that, I was encouraged to start a nonprofit, and we've just been running ever since, so started as my passion, to hobby, to helping others.

I mean, they both would be perfect.

Neither of them are wrong.

We're using art for social impact, so it's kind of no pressure at all when you're creating something.

It could be anything.

- Right now on both the sides, I'm just gonna make, like, a little rainbow.

- I have three kids.

I have Parker, Maddison, and Alice.

- [Maddison] It's been really fun to do.

- And I might put some sand at the bottom.

- I really like that she includes us with it.

- It's really great that I've had the kids help me.

It's like a sense of pride and gratefulness to have them be interested as well and see them be excited.

- It's really nice to do it with her because she's very encouraging.

She's very kind and loving.

If we make a mistake, she'll help us with it and she guides us through what we need help with.

- The laces are fun.

When they were little, I would just get them shoes that they could paint, so they were next to me and learning.

But now they do help paint base colors.

- So it really has brought us closer.

- [Alice] We're actually doing something, like, we're being productive and doing stuff together.

- [Maddison] I really like painting, like, sunsets.

- It's a creative outlet that keeps your mind distracted when you're going through something or you're trying to heal something in your brain.

And then after it's been created, we're giving it away so it's helping somebody else as well, so it's good on both sides.

It turned out great, maybe one big one here and a couple babies.

- The bottom is kind of like the sea.

- It makes me really happy just knowing that we were able to help someone else.

- Thank you.

- [Alice] I know that other kids like receiving presents like I do.

It makes me feel happy because they get to wear some shoes on their feet.

- [Maddison] It's, like, handmade, so it's, like, made with love.

- I mean, as a single mom, there's been so many times in life that I've needed help from the community.

So when I was just feeling so heavy for my brother, I made a post on Facebook and then people had been messaging me on there.

And so I added it to the website, and it just created a waiting list.

Our website is ArtAltruistic.com.

Through that website, you can choose to sign up, there's a Little Feet, Big Dreams section, and you just fill out the form, and it'll just send an email to me.

With this whole experience, mental health has been more of a topic of discussion and how important it is to just take care of your mind.

And so I've seen how great it's impacted our family before and after all of this.

- It just, it makes my heart so happy.

You know, knowing that us or a family member was able to help another person.

I know if I needed a pair of shoes and I received that, it'd make me really happy.

- [Victoria] It's an essential item, you have to have shoes, and they're good-quality shoes.

So I think it's definitely making a good social impact, using art for that.

- [Maddison] If you give back to your community, it can, like, come back to you.

- It's fun, and I feel like I can help kids express how they feel, and I can help myself express how I feel.

- I just love it.

I love it.

Even if I'm known as, like, the painted shoe girl or lady, you know, I love it.

My brother, Casey, he would be jumping up and down.

I mean, he would be so proud.

He really would.

He is like, he was, like, everybody's best cheerleader.

Yeah.

(gentle music) (vocalist singing in Italian) - Hi, my name is Connie, and I'm one of the co-founders of Nomad Theatre Company.

(mysterious music) Nomad is a site-specific theatre company.

Our tagline is theatre that moves.

So we literally take theatre outside of a traditional theatre space and into locations specific to a play.

So we are bringing the arts into the community.

- Like, just start from kinda where Cindy is and do your cross.

With fake paint and no throwing water.

- Yeah.

- I'm Cristen Monson, and I'm the co-founder of Nomad Theatre Company.

- Oh my God!

- It does not!

- Chloe starts the scene, and then... Nomad Theatre is a site-specific theatre that uses our community spaces and businesses as the locations for the plays that we produce.

- If a play takes place in a bar, we perform it in a bar.

If a play takes place in an art gallery, we are at the art gallery performing the show.

So yeah, it is theatre that moves literally and emotionally in some cases too.

- Why not?

You tell them everything else about my life.

(Cristen laughs) - Someone else jump in!

I am a performer, but I also work at ISU in their Musical Theatre Department.

I teach musical theatre, voice, and music theory.

(Katherine singing in Italian) (bright opera music) You did go a little nuts with the pink, but.

It's amazing.

It's like nothing I have ever experienced before.

(bright opera music) I was like, oh, wow, this is so inviting and collaborative, and I felt like I could really tell stories here.

- So, can we go back a little bit further to... Connie and I had been friends for a while.

We were both actors in the community.

And then we ended up, by happenstance, working in the same office in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Film at Illinois State.

- Cristen and I, who co-founded Nomad, we're really looking for a way to create something new and fresh.

- And through our conversations, our frustrations with not getting to do the projects we wanted to do, we just came upon the idea of maybe, "Hey, why don't we do something on our own?"

- It started with big ideas and just a passion for wanting to bring something for the community that was different.

- What are we talking about here?

- First, it was really hard, because nobody knew what we were talking about or what we were doing or what the idea was in our head.

They were like, "You just wanna come and do shows or plays?

Sure, I guess we can do that."

And we had to go out and find places and ask.

Now we have businesses and places that contact us and say, "Hey, we would love for you to do something in our space," because it really is a great way to bring awareness from the community to a space that people might not know about.

People being able to understand that theatre doesn't only have to happen in a theatre has been really eye-opening, and I think the community is very refreshed by that.

- I'm not gonna stop you if you really want them.

- So this play is called "Paint Night" by Carey Crim.

It's a fairly new play.

It's only been produced in the last three years.

I was looking for new works, and I was literally looking on plays that take place in specific locations.

Listen to her for a few more minutes, and then go on.

And I found this play that took place at a paint and sip, where you go and you paint and you drink wine.

- There!

- (gasps) Miriam!

- [Cristen] We'll be performing at the McLean County Arts Center's new annex.

It's like a blank slate.

Our scenic designer's going to be creating a paint and sip, so there'll be that type of art and easels and paint.

And it will hopefully be like you're stepping into the paint and sip.

- I did it myself.

- We're painting, like, actually painting a picture.

We actually have to have a paint night to learn how to paint the picture that we're painting in the play.

So every night we do the play, we'll have a new painting.

- There.

- We're faking a little bit.

- I think art heals, especially this play.

As funny as it is, it really tugs on your heartstrings in, like, the right way.

- Does someone really need to speak for you to know them?

- Yes!

- This is a truly unique experience as a performer to just kinda step into the space and become a part of it.

- [Katherine] It's definitely a more intimate experience.

I feel like the audience is a part of the story.

- [Connie] It creates a unique, immersive way to experience theatre.

- It isn't real.

- Seeing audiences like, "I've never seen anything like this show before, that was so cool," or, you know, "I've never seen a play in," fill in the blank, right?

Like, "I've never seen a play in my front yard."

"I've never seen a play at the library."

So hearing that and seeing how excited they are to learn what location we'll be at next and everything's kind of a surprise for them, I think that that's what keeps me going in this.

- [Cristen] We have our website, nomadtheatre.org.

You can go there for all of the recent events, you know, past events.

We can't give any secrets away, but we will be going to lots of new places that we have never been in the community before.

- Boop!

- No way!

- What Nomad means to me is just what it mutually means to the community who's experiencing it.

The positivity and the satisfaction and the happiness that they're getting from seeing or being a part of a Nomad show definitely brings me joy.

- I mean, you did go a little nuts with the pink.

Are you drunk too?

- The best part of Nomad are the people that make it happen.

(Katherine giggling) Everybody understands that they're working towards something that's, like, for the greater good.

And there's just something great about that feeling of, like, we're all in this together, we're doing something new, fresh, and innovative, and we wanna see it work.

Being around people that are like-minded, like, that is just inspiring.

(audience clapping) - Theatre is for everyone, and Nomad preaches that.

So if you're afraid, just do it, and I think you will be surprised at what you discover about yourself.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Thank you for joining us on this journey.

If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to explore even more local content.

You can connect with us on our social media channels, visit our website, or download the free app.

We can't wait to see you next time on "You Gotta See This!"

(cheerful music) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues) (cheerful music continues)