Benevolent Arts and Entertainment was created to bridge the gap between quality entertainment and special events hosted by charity organizations due to financial adversity.
OUR LONG STORY OF HOW WE CAME TO BE
(and why we serve those we do):
Founder, DawnMarie Borders, is an amazing life-long artist with an entrepreneurial spirit. She was born in the summer of 1976 and grew up with her 3 brothers and one sister in Bensenville, IL. She is second oldest of the bunch with 6 years difference between her and the next in line; and would often help out with her younger siblings.
Life was not always easy growing up thou, as the unfortunate experiences of child abuse and domestic violence tortured her family. All too often, DCFS along with local police were frequently involved.
At the young age of 8 she started drawing to pass the time and escape the chaos. Drawing gave her a release and way out mentally with something to focus her mind and emotions on in a positive way. Every opportunity that came she would be drawing, sketching, painting, or creating. Family, friends, and teachers alike all knew that she would be an artist one day, they just didn't know what kind.
Then In the summer of 1991 when she was only 15 years old, on an ordinary day, her and a friend went to visit the local "Gold Rush Days" fair in town. While enjoying the festival, she saw a couple artists face-painting kids and stopped to watch. She noticed the work they were doing and thought the quality could be better and decided right then that she could be that change.
Slowly she began booking herself at local carnivals, festivals, and craft fairs on the weekends. Learning along the way of how to break into the world of entertainment. During the rest of the week, she attended school full-time and worked part time in the evenings. When she graduated in 1994 she began working full-time at fortune 500 companies in the role of customer service, secretary and administrative assistant in the Human Resources department.
Many of these companies were ISO9000 or SixSigma certified. There she learned the fundamentals of operating a successful business from the inside. Always eager to help, she would often float between departments and learn more with each role.
In 1994 at the age of 18 she vacationed to the Maya Riviera. While on vacation she met a local man and fell madly in love.
She soon moved to Cozumel Mexico where he was from and lived a fairytale life. She created a well-established name for herself and sold her artwork at local galleries & enjoyed scuba diving daily.
After 10 years of Island life, when the grips of domestic violence with her alcoholic husband were too much to bear, she returned to her hometown of Bensenville to start over.
After only a short timeframe she found herself smitten by a Navy officer who proposed and followed with a short engagement then marriage. The relationship was a fast whirlwind and soon was swept off to Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. Sadly, the marriage suffered from the beginning with the ugly grips of domestic violence.
In early 2010 she learned she would soon be a mother. Due to the stress of the violence, her daughter was born premature and weighed a mere 5 lbs. When her daughter HollyRose was only a few months old, DawnMarie made the decision to leave the marriage and started making plans. She made one final attempt to saver her marriage, but it was apparent that it just wasn't meant to be and when HollyRose was 10 months old she made the move to start over and finally get away from over 35 years of violence. She refused to allow her daughter to feel the agony of domestic violence.
The road to safety was not easy as she yet again returned to her hometown to rebuild. Now homeless and a single mother, the two of them stayed in her vehicle, at safe houses, and domestic violence shelters. It was there at the shelters that she began the long road of recovery, healing and was connected with much needed resources to succeed in breaking the cycle once and for all.
Now, scared, and homeless with an infant, she leaned more into her faith and put things in God's hands. Little by little she found odd jobs to work where she could keep her tiny daughter with her; from housekeeping, babysitting, painting murals and the occasional event.
She was determined to get back on her feet.
Slowly money came in and she was able to get into transitional housing, then a place of her own. Party events were getting more frequent, and she decided to become a full-time entertainer and have maximum time raising her daughter. After about a year and seeing many customers being turned away due to a full schedule, she decided to start subcontracting to other local artists.
In 2013, with over 25 years of experience, she finally decided to take things one step further and formed BeeGiggles Entertainment. She continued to offer high quality work at a fair price and sticking close to her long-held Christian values, she also volunteered her time and services to the community and charity organizations. Forever holding a special place in her heart for Domestic Violence shelters and those who helped our Military & Veterans.
Over the years while working at events, she would frequently be asked questions like, "do you do balloons?" or "do you work private events?" or "what other services do you offer?"
Being raised in a family 3 generations strong of business owners, she saw the value of this public feedback and turned those inquiries into movement; she wisely decided to invest in herself and learn more about these other services. Little by little she gained new skills by attending conventions, classes, online courses, DVD training videos or just figuring it out on her own.
Throughout any given year, she would receive dozens of inquiry requests to donate her services to a local charity or event. These calls would come from schools, churches, individuals who were hosting fundraisers and nonprofit organizations that served the military, children, animals or raising awareness for medical disorders. Each call would be the same, they loved the services she offered but either did not have a budget or had very little to pay.
Being a single parent and the sole breadwinner of the home, DawnMarie needed to be cautious of how many volunteer events she could commit to. The business expenses such as materials, equipment, supplies, gas for travel, business insurance, marketing materials and then the cost for childcare for her daughter when she was working all added up quickly. Plus, since she could only be at one place at any given time, she would turn away other full paying events that would otherwise pay the bills.
After building a great reputation, she soon found herself turning a tremendous amount of work away still and subcontractors were not reliable or a good fit. She had built a reputation and a level of quality that others could not compare to. She soon decided to grow the business further and chose to create a team of artists. It took time, but she personally trained each one of them - starting from the ground up and focusing on the quality level the public expected.
Now with a team of artists working events, she could then focus on her passion of volunteering and serving others.
Many amazing organizations called looking for entertainment for their events. Often times the coordinator would mention that they have volunteers who would do face painting at the event. DawnMarie would cringe each time & caution them of the importance of hiring a trained professional who is skilled in all aspects.
She would also hear feedback that the entertainer who they had previously did very privative work, wasn't professional or sometimes would cancel at the last minute because they got a paying event
Working in the entertainment industry for over three decades she spoke with over 100 nonprofit organizations. Throughout that time she heard the difficulties these organizations faced each time they sought out entertainment for an event:
.. .. she saw a gap that needed to be filled. The main theme for all of the items was MONEY... if they only had the funding necessary to hire a professional.
Feeling the mission God placed on her heart to serve others; she knew it was crucial to form a benevolent organization to serve others. To bridge that gap between quality services and charity events
And this is how Benevolent Arts and Entertainment was born.
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