Expect to see several umbrellas over the weekend, but not for rainy skies.

Roughly 150 colorful umbrellas will reappear at Hillside Sedona along State Route 179 from Friday, Oct. 21, to Sunday, Oct. 23, as part of Umbrella Project.

The umbrellas are hand-painted by children around the world. Initially put on display at the students’ schools, the umbrellas are finally assembled for the major exhibit in Sedona.

Started in 1990 by Hilda Brown, the Umbrella Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit raising funds for various causes, such as the Humane Society of Sedona, humanitarian relief in Thailand from the 2006 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, and the 2011 eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami.

Funds have also been donated to assist other schools, nonprofit groups and organizations servicing children.

“We address wherever the need is greatest,” she said. “This year’s theme is Creatures Large and Small.”

This project’s recipient is National Wildlife Federation, Brown said. The organization is involved in animal cleanup efforts following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf exploded April 20, 2010, after which nearly 5 million barrels of oil gushed from a reservoir on the sea floor until the well was capped July 15. More than a year later, oil continues to affect coastal wildlife habitats from Louisiana to Florida as well as devastating aquatic life over thousands of square miles of open ocean.

Students contributing to the current project come from across the United States, from New York to the Gulf Coast to Arizona.

Brown said the Umbrella Project began simply — she lost an umbrella in 1990 when she was living in Manhattan, N.Y.

“So I thought I would paint umbrellas for Christmas and give them away,” she said.

She was later invited to Moscow for a healing project in the then-Soviet Union and had children paint blank umbrellas.

“Then it just grew,” she said.

Over the last 21 years, the project has traveled the world. Children in Thailand, Tibet and Japan have painted umbrellas. The Dalai Lama was given Thousands of dollars have benefited children and nonprofit organizations all over the world. The Haiti project alone raised $7,000.

“We’re very open for people’s ideas and visions,” Brown said.

Now based in Verrado, near Buckeye, Brown works with three volunteer teachers as well as teachers in communities around the world.

The 150 umbrellas will start going up around 10 a.m. Friday. For a $50 donation, they will be available for people to take home. Other items like T-shirts and DVDs about the Umbrella Project are available for lesser amounts. Donors are also welcome to give more.

Brown said the organization has to buy umbrellas, but uses grant money when available.

The proceeds, minus expenses, go the National Wildlife Federation and future Umbrella Projects to benefit other children with what Brown likes to call “twice-blessed money.”

Next year’s project, inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is I Have A Dream, with proceeds benefiting the Children’s Defense Fund. The organization aims to lift children out of poverty, protect them from abuse and neglect, and advocate for childcare, children’s health insurance and quality education.

“We want children to paint their visions for the future,” Brown said, due to important spiritual changes related to the year 2012.

“The theme is to give the kids the vehicle in the United States to express their vision,” she said.