The National Art Honor Society (NAHS) at Fossil Ridge High School is currently creating Memory Projects for foreign children around the world. The Memory Project shines a spotlight on 15 children from Pakistan who lack advanced technology and have little to no pictures of themselves. Members of the NAHS took on this challenge and were assigned a child to draw following a sample photo of them. They were required to use full detail with the time frame of about one month. Quickly, these artistic students began their work with the intent that their piece would be identical to the original photo.

Madelyn Coy is a member of NAHS and absolutely loves to be artistically creative. She was assigned to a young boy named Muhammad, who is twelve years old. In Muhammad’s letter, he specifically mentioned that his favorite color is blue and he would be very happy if the artist was able to factor in some of that color. Coy said, “I am very grateful to have done such an amazing thing for someone who is not as fortunate and this really allows me to put other parts of the world into perspective”. She has been drawing portraits for the past year or so, but she says this specific one has been the most special to her and has allowed her to connect with someone on the other side of the world. She added a blue splatter of paint behind the portrait to the piece to incorporate what the boy wanted.

Art teacher Chelsea Ermer is in charge of this project and said, “The project is important for the students to connect to kids they normally wouldn’t be interacting with. Also, those kids in Pakistan don’t have a lot of things and it’s amazing that they can see that someone is out there that cares for them.” On the back of portraits, there’s a blurb in the language the child speaks, and this year they are having the artist draw their hand on the paper so the kids can feel connected to the artist.

As of now, their final touches are being added and Fossil will have them sent out to the children by December 7.