Hey, everyone and welcome to Stu and the Kids. (We are now a 501c3, tax-exempt, nonprofit charity but this is how it all began.) Thanks for stopping by to check out my site. My name is Stuart Skversky, was a chef, a personal chef and food consultant for most of my adult life. I originally from Philly and moved around the states, Arizona, North Carolina, New York and ending up in Los Angeles. Over 8 years ago I decided to take some time off from my beloved Venice Beach to help, learn, live and volunteer for a year in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the Wat Don Chan orphanage; 650 kids from 7 different hill tribes in the northern parts of Thailand live at the orphanage and range in age from 5-19. It wound up changing my life and path forever and am still here! I love it. After an amazing trip to Thailand with 3 other chef buddies in 2006, I realized I wanted to spend more time in this beautiful country as well as learn as much as I could about the food, the people, the culture and all of it’s places. When I came back to Los Angeles, I found a place to begin this schooling. While studying Thai language at the Thai Temple in North Hollywood, CA, I began working closely with my language teacher and founder of an organization called Project Thailand. In 2006 Bodega Wine Bar in Santa Monica, CA allowed us to use their space to host a beautiful and cultural fundraiser filled with friends.
Welcome to stuandthekids.org and thanks for stopping by to check out our website. Stu and The Kids is a 501c3, tax-exempt nonprofit organization that provides scholarships for under-served and orphaned Hill Tribe children for continuing their education here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My name is Stuart Skversky or Stu as everyone calls me and I have been a chef many, many years. After traveling all over Thailand and falling in love with Chiang Mai I decided to come back for a visit to give back. I volunteered at a school for poor and orphaned kids at the Wat Don Chan, a local Temple for 2 weeks, it was an amazing, life changing experience. After returning to my “regular” life in Los Angeles as a private chef it was difficult to not think about these wonderful kids all the time. So I did what I had to do, my mind and my heart had to do something. So I quit my job, sold everything I had and moved to Chiang Mai to became a full time volunteer at the Wat. I have done many things since moving here over 10 years ago but teaching English, cooking and baking have been my main duties. After doing this for about 3 years I saw that there was a HUGE need to really help these kids when they graduated from the Wat but the problem is some do not have any identification, some have not 1 single family member and all of them just do not have any money. I was worried what they would get into if they could not continue studying and get some kind of degree to get a good job.
That next year I went back to the states and had a fundraiser. I now started to raise money to help kids get into university or technical college so they could get some type of degree and have a good opportunity to have a better life. Since this time Stu and The Kids has helped 8 kids to continue their education (now we have helped 28 kids and still growing). In 2014 when I went back home to fundraise people kept telling me how much more money I could raise and how many more kids I could help if I became at registered 501c3. I had always avoided this because to be honest I am not such a paper work guy, I was scared and I was worried it would take me away from the actual work, working with the kids and I did not want that to change. But I decided to do it anyway. With the help of an amazing donor that paid for everything needed to do this and with the help of a great team of board members, WE DID IT! As of January 29, 2015, we became a real, deal 501c3! I am so excited for the future of the charity and the thought of being able to help even more kids, well lets just say I am beyond excited and grateful. Thank you for stopping by and please check back whenever you have the time to see what’s new. Thank you for all of the love and continued support.
Peace, -Stu