Art with Heart

Our goal is to create an arts based program that produces items to make an impact both locally and globally. We plan to create reusable grocery bags to lessen our impact on the environment, crochet sleeping mats for the homeless using plastic shopping bags, sew pillowcase dresses for children in Africa and make no-sew fleece scarves for local people in need. Students will also create motivational art pieces to hang in the school to build up morale and encourage inclusivity and kindness. We will build connections between students and strengthen our relationship with local seniors by inviting them to participate in the crochet sleep mats project.

Update (July 12, 2018)

This school year, Oak Lake Community School decided to put our artistic and crafty talents to good causes!
We started off by having a plastic grocery bag donation drive to collect enough bags to crochet into sleeping mats for the homeless. We were hugely successful and ended up collecting over 4000 bags! Students cut them into strips and made “plarn ”. We purchased crochet hooks and after a few crochet lessons with a local senior, we were able to begin our first mat! Due to the high workload of this project, we were only able to complete 2 mats this year, but will continue with the project next year to make even more!
Our school also embarked on a “go green” project where we made reusable cotton grocery bags! Students learned how to cut out and sew a basic pattern and donated the bags to our local grocery store to give out to customers! We made a total of 13 bags. This program was so successful, we have made plans to sew them again next year!
Students were encouraged to paint art pieces that promote positivity and kindness this year. Their art was put on display throughout the halls of our school, at our first ever Oak Lake Community School art show and at a Community art gallery! A total of 41 art pieces were created!
Our final project for the year was to create pillow case dresses for girls in Africa. Given their new skills learned through sewing grocery bags, students began to pin and cut out the patterns. The dresses will be completed this summer through a youth group attended by our students and ran by myself. We should have 6 dresses ready to be sent to Africa when the program is finished!
We have had a very busy, but highly productive year at our school and are so happy that we were given the chance to give back to our local and global communities!