Bloomingdale High Art Project Benefits Children in the Honduras

A group of students at Bloomingdale High School is bringing smiles to orphans in third-world countries with their artwork.

For the third year, members of the Bloomingdale Art Club has launched the Memory Project in which they receive photographs of impoverished children age 5 to 13 and turn them into works of art.

Seven Bloomingdale students are taking part in the Memory Project, a national initiative based in Middleton, Wis. Each student donated $15 toward photography and postage to mail the photographs of the children. Then, in January, the students received their photographs of orphaned children they will use to create a portrait of the child. They will then send the finished portrait to the child to keep.

"The project began in Latin America when when one person, a college student, realized these kids had no records of themselves, no photos or anything," said Bloomingdale student Kassie Hoffman. "So he started taking photos of the children and sending them to schools so students could turn them into portraits."

The art students work on the portraits on their own time and choose their own medium for the project.

For student Alexis Vasquez, who has taken part in the Memory Project all three years, the experience has proven rewarding.

"It's a way to show these children you care," she said. "After we send the portraits to the children, we get a picture back showing the child holding his portrait. It's so great to see the smiles on their faces."

"That's the cool part, getting the picture back," said student Amy Edwards. "You can see how happy they are to receive the portraits."

The Bloomingdale students plan to use watercolors, tempera paint and acrylics to create the children's portraits.

"It's really a neat project," said Ashly Shay. "My little brother and sister are adopted so I have a personal reason for wanting to participate. It's nice to be able to help someone else by sharing your artwork."

"Arts has a healing quality," said student April Showalter. "And it's just a great way to reach out to others."

"Art crosses all language barriers," said Vasquez. "I think it's pretty great to reach out to someone else in another country."

For more information about the Memory Project, visit http://www.memoryproject.org/.