Most 10-year-olds ask for a bike or an iPad for their birthday. Some may even ask for more obscure things like a dog. But for Chelsea Phaire, the only gift she wanted was to jumpstart her own charity.

After witnessing the abundant homeless population in Washington D.C. on a family trip to the White House, young Phaire was distraught. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Phaire asked her friends and family to bring art supplies to her birthday party in lieu of gifts.

With the donations received from her guests and local supporters, Phaire gathered enough supplies to turn her dream into a reality. She founded Chelsea’s Charity, where she creates high-quality art kits for children in need to spread the message “art is the start.”

“Art is my superpower, ” Phaire said. “After I finish an art project, it really helps me with my self esteem because I’m just looking at it and saying, ‘Wow! I can’t believe that!’ You do not have to be the best artist in the world just to enjoy art. It’s yours. Whatever art you make, it doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s, it’s yours and that’s what makes you feel unique.”

Using her superpower, Phaire and her charity have been able to help spread the power of art across the country and overseas. Already, she has sent 500 kits to children in Haiti and plans to send hundreds more in the near future.

Recently, the fifth-grader traveled to elementary schools in El Paso, Texas, and Jersey City, New Jersey to provide art kits and a free lesson to students impacted by the mass shootings that rattled their hometowns. By doing so, she hoped it would teach them healthy ways to cope with their trauma. This was a lesson Phaire picked up from her mother, Dr. Candace Barriteau-Phaire, an assistant professor and program coordinator for Early Childhood, Infant/Toddler Mental Health at Central Connecticut.

“Because of my work with early childhood, I do a lot of work with social and emotional learning,” Barriteau-Phaire said. “Which is why it makes such a difference when I work with my own children and see them recognize that this is important.”

Barriteau-Phaire said that she is proud of her daughter for using her art to empower others.

“It’s sad that she has to do this, but at the same time I’m glad she’s thinking of others and how to help them through these experiences, or at least expose them to this idea that art is a healer,” she said. “Maybe it might even help someone prevent a bully, they [might] think, ‘Hey we’re really supposed to help each other not hurt each other.'”

The entire Phaire family is actively involved in helping with Chelsea’s Charity and spreading the message, but it is 10-year-old Phaire’s voice that makes an impact on her peers. As she teaches her lessons, she shares how art helps in ways that they can relate to.

“Art can help you tell a story and communicate what you can’t,” Phaire said during an art lesson at CCSU’s Literacy Center. “Art has helped me — it’s kind of like a therapy for me. If I’m upset with my little brother or doing something I’m not supposed to be, I make art to say I’m sorry, to cool down, or help me do things I’m not going to regret.”

As an advocate for young leaders, Literacy Center Director Dr. Jesse Turner said she supports Phaire and her work. Turner described her as, “a little girl changing the world one little art kit at a time.”