MAIKO'S LIFE
Maiko's mother, Akemi, studied art at Ryuku University. She dreamed of one day moving to Carmel, which she eventually did, and made a living there doing portraiture. |
Maiko was born on April 15 in Carmel, California. She lived in a Buddhist temple for the first year of her life.
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Father Martin provided Maiko her favorite red coat. |
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| Maiko with her sister Yoi wearing kimonos their mother brought back from Japan. At 3 years old their mother took them to Japan to live. Maiko would spend the next 7 years in and out of hospitals because of her asthma. The doctor told her mother to prepare for her death. |
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Maiko Maya has been active in charitable work all of her life. She is the founder of The Circle of Charities Foundation, a non-profit organization which promotes local charities throughout the Los Angeles area. She is also the CEO of Circle of Charities LLC, a consulting company which raises money for the Charities in the Circle. She is part owner/VP of Harvelles, a live music venue located in Santa Monica and downtown Long Beach. | |
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Maiko spent her early childhood in Japan. As a teenager, she grew up in Santa Monica and Venice, and discovered that she was gifted in drawing, writing and music. She was very active with The Venice Arts Mecca in its early years and later, The Venice Dream Team, founded by Bingwa Thomas - which provided photography, art and acting workshops for kids living in the Venice area. Participants learned how to raise money with their photography, and by having their own art exhibits they earned enough to travel the world and take more photos. Maiko's interest in charitable work was sparked; she continued to find ways to help those in need. She was extremely curious about ways to help the homeless, and worked with groups of friends to sell items to raise money and buy food for some of the homeless people they became friends with at the park. Later, she would go on to develop relationships with organizations such as The Midnight Mission, The Union Rescue Mission, The SCLC, Forgiving For Living through her work with The Donald Sterling Foundation. Maiko Maya and The Circle of Charities works to promote 36 charities, mostly in The Los Angeles area and a few overseas. She lives in Los Angeles where she built a professional music studio to offer The Circle Arts Program, an arts program that provides free music lessons to kids who can't afford them. In exchange for the free art lessons, the kids learn about becoming little philanthropists and volunteerism by using their creative gifts to raise more money for The Circle Arts Program. | ||