Tiana Lie-Hamilton says she couldn’t be more proud of her three daughters for supporting people in need as the holiday season approaches.
For the second-straight year, 13-year-old Madisyn, 11-year-old Paige and nine-year-old Alabama created and sold wood art pieces, with some help from their mother, and will share half of their profits with people in need.
“I make wood mosaics – I’m a business owner and work out of my basement,” said Lie-Hamilton.
“My daughters wanted to make pieces last year and make some money for Christmas. I explained to them that if they wanted to do that, they’d have to share. I’ve always explained if you’re going to earn money, you share money.”
Last year, the sisters raised about $500 to support a couple of struggling single parents over the Christmas season.
“I’m also a single parent, so that was a really humbling experience,” said Lie-Hamilton.
Once every piece is sold this year, the girls will raise more than $700, which will go towards supporting people experiencing homelessness.
“My middle girl Paige wanted to make care packages for the homeless. If we go through a drive-thru or something we always stop and give money – we do what we can,” said Lie-Hamilton.
“My mom has been homeless in the past and I know when my brother was a teen he spent nights out on the street. I’ve just always taught my girls there’s a story behind everyone. We don’t know, we don’t judge and we give what we can.”
The Lie-Hamilton family will make care packages with the raised money and hand them out to people living on the streets. The packages will include items such as hand warmers, gloves and gift cards for warm drinks.
Some of this year’s art pieces include a reindeer, a gnome, a snowman, trees and snowflakes. The girls came up with the designs themselves.
“I’ll cut the pieces (of wood) and they will sand them, stain them and paint them and put them on (the base),” Lie-Hamilton explained.
“My middle child has a very engineering-type mind – she understands how things are put together. When she saw me putting my mosaics together, she came up with an idea for a reindeer. It all kind of started with that. She came up to me with her graph paper and had it all designed: what I was supposed to cut and how big the pieces would be.”
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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