It’s unusual to come across someone who’s as generous with their time as Justin is.
And as a 30-something professional animator living in Los Angeles, his time is pretty precious!
(Have you seen that Los Angeles traffic? Sheesh!)
In fact, he first heard about CoachArt on the job, at a motion graphics meetup in downtown Los Angeles.
“A woman was looking for animators to volunteer at a group stop-motion event for kids with chronic illness,” Justin explained. “I was immediately interested.”
He signed up right away! Since 2018, Justin has been an all-star CoachArt volunteer who’s raked in over 60 matches. (And still counting!)
After years of dedication to the CoachArt mission, we’re honoring Justin with the CoachArt Spirit Award!

Just Keep Strumming
Before Justin jumped into teaching animation, he signed up to show kids how to strum a six string.
His first lead guitarist? Pryzcilla!
“She wanted to learn ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy,” Justin shared. “So, for the next twenty weeks, we did just that.”
After those intense twenty weeks, Pryzcilla had not only learned to play the entire song, she’d managed to sing along at the same time!
“That’s very hard to do,” Justin revealed. “I was very proud!”

Unleashed Imagination
Whether his students want to sketch worms coming out of monsters’ noses (true story) or build dinosaur dioramas, Justin embraces each CoachArt kid’s creative vision.
“I’m always impressed by the creative stories these kids want to tell,” Justin smiled. “It’s like they don’t even think about it or have any hesitation. It’s pretty inspiring to be around that kind of creativity!”
We think you’re pretty inspiring yourself, Justin. Thank you for everything you do to support the CoachArt community!
Unleashed Imagination
Your donations to CoachArt guarantee that super-star volunteers like Justin can have a positive impact in the lives of aspiring artists like Pryzcilla and Melodie.
100% of our 2023 Impact Fund goes to the lesson materials and volunteer training and management to provide more lessons to more kids in 2023.
$14 is the average cost of 1 lesson for 1 student, through CoachArt’s innovative model.