CINCINNATI — Stephen T. Badin High School is one of many education facilities that sent its students home due to COVID-19. But, before going into quarantine, Badin students prepared surprises for children at St. Joseph Orphanage and the Booker T. Washington Community Center.
“We’re putting together boxes for kids who may not have art supplies at home,” said Badin Junior Caroline Hughes.
The students assembled 160 art kits: 80 for 6 to 9-year-olds and another 80 for 10 to 12-year-olds. Each box, which contained sketchbooks and paint, cost $15 to $20, and was made possible by a $3,500 grant from The Fairfield Community Foundation.
“We don’t think about like ‘oh my gosh, I actually get a pack of pencils or I get to paint today’… we just come in here and think that’s just an every day thing,” said Junior Tommy Hogan. “But these kids are like ‘oh my gosh! Look at this opportunity I’ve been given.’ They’re so thankful for it.”
Through this project, art teacher Sarah Daniels hopes to make children’s lives more colorful while indoors.
“There are so many kids in our community that don’t have access to art supplies,” she said. “These kids have nothing. A lot of them don’t have parents so we want to give them that inspiration to hopefully explore art supplies.”
She knows that while they help the community, her own students are getting a lesson as well.
“You plant seeds and hopefully they carry that with them throughout their life,” Daniels said. “When you give back to children, it gives hope for tomorrow. It inspires them. These are the inventors, the teachers of tomorrow.”
The students were able to deliver about 80 of the kits to St. Joseph’s Orphanage before schools closed due to the coronavirus. They plan on delivering the rest of the batch when it is safe enough to do so.
“This is sad, because those children could be using those kits as we speak,” wrote Daniels in an email.
