Never doubt that a small group of teens can make a big impact on a community. A group of high school students from Elkhorn Valley School formed a group called Positive Painters and submitted a community service project to the Northeast Nebraska Philanthropy Council Youth Contest. Their project was selected as one of the eight projects that received $1,000 grant from the Connie Fund.
The Positive Painters were assisted with their project by Kara Weander-Gaster from the Norfolk Arts Center. She mentored these young adults. They used their funding to mat and frame their original art work and to host an art auction for charity.
The auction was held on Saturday April 28th at the Tilden Public Library. The student’s art work, as well as art work donated from local artists, was auctioned off. Each student had chosen their favorite charity and the public was able to vote amongst those charities to choose which charity would be the recipient of the funds raised. Bright Horizons was honored to be selected as the recipient of the $2,129.43 that the students raised.
Stephanie Esparza selected Bright Horizons and painted her picture, “Sky Lit Rose” in honor of victims of domestic violence. She stated, “I chose Bright Horizons because I believe no one should ever be abused, whether its emotional or physical. This means a lot to me because I’ve seen how it destroys people, families. It haunts them for the rest of their lives. In my piece the rose symbolizes the person abused. The dark background symbolizes the pain, confusion and anger they have felt but the spirals going up from the flower represent hope.”
Pictured is Linda Olson, Bright Horizons’ Executive Director, and Stephanie Esparza next to her painting “Sky Lit Rose”
Written by Linda Olson, Executive Director