With a stroke of a pencil or brush, Pflugerville High School art students helped make a difference for students on the other side of the world.
Students in the high school’s National Art Honor Society raised money and awareness for The Memory Project by making portraits of Nigerian students and sending them to the students.
The Memory Project aims to help children and teens around the world change lives through art. Since its founding in 2004, more than 250,000 students have participated in its programs to spread joy and love through art.
Pflugerville High art teacher Nicole Wuest said participating in the project offered a chance to inspire students from a part of the world where few have the opportunity to go to school.
This year’s project had artists include photos of themselves with their artwork and trace their hand on the back of the portraits, so the children could symbolically hold hands and connect with them across the globe.
The Pflugerville High National Art Honor Society students sketched, drew and painted 45 portraits of Nigerian students. Through the program, the local students were matched with the Nigerian children. Each artist received a photograph of a child living abroad and created the handmade portrait for that child.
This is the third year Pflugerville High students have participated in The Memory Project, and this year even former students asked if they could make portraits. Pflugerville High senior Tristan Eddings said while she was nervous to participate, she knew the experience would be impactful on all sides.
“It was very challenging as someone who was participating for the first time, but it was also very rewarding to be able to give back,” Tristan said.
Wuest said she and her students were not prepared for the emotions they felt when watching a video of students touching their handprints.
“There was no way we could have anticipated the feeling we had when we watched the video and saw the children putting their hands in ours,” she said. “It was a moving experience to say the least, and each time we’ve received a video back where children are so happy to receive their portraits, we are always left teary-eyed and wishing we could start a new batch of portraits for children in need.”
For more information about The Memory Project, visit memoryproject.org. The nonprofit has provided portraits for students in 55 countries and also sponsors an art exchange and poetry exchange program for students.
David Wiechmann is a communications specialist with the Pflugerville school district.
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