It started when Ashley Harvey wanted to provide her daughter Lily with something special.

Harvey — who serves as the art director for the SCERA Center for the Arts in Orem, Utah — decided to sculpture her daughter a keepsake out of clay.

The idea of it being a night light was also for it to provide comfort.

The result was an elephant night light.

Today that white elephant has been joined by a gray elephant, a white lion, a gold lion, by a green dinosaur, a white whale, a yellow giraffe, and a purple dinosaur along with a white pomegranate. They are part of Harvey’s business named Lily’s Lights in honor of her daughter.

The lights are all handcrafted sculptures complete with a LED plug-in light selling for $30 each. The lights are safe and cool to touch.

They are available from lilyslights.com, walmart.com, Etsy, and Amazon. Harvey’s creations will soon also be available from a Wayfair platform.

Every time a night light is sold, she is donating one to organizations that work with children. Agape Village Foster Agency was a natural first choice given her family’s history of helping foster children. She has three adopted siblings.

“Night lights can be comforting for children,” Harvey said. “That is especially true for foster kids who end up in places that are new and unfamiliar to them . . . I wanted them to have something that was their own they could take with them whenever they had to move.”

It is why she launched Lily’s Lights out of the gate with the business model that matches every sale to a night light donation to an agency that helps children.

Harvey and her partner — and sister — Ericka Chapman donated $3,200 worth of the night lights earlier this month to Agape Village.

“We are hoping these little lights will bring kids comfort during a scary time in their lives,” Chapman said.

Harvey, a California State University at Stanislaus graduate, works closely with manufacturers to ensure product quality and safety.

The sisters are the daughters of Sierra High band teacher Richard Hammarstrom and the late Sarah Hammarstrom. Both attended Nile Garden School and are Sierra High graduates. Chapman is an art teacher at Lathrop High.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com