Though severe weather was looming, the threat of heavy rain did nothing to dissuade Kate Sullivan art teacher Emily Westfall-Crouch from putting on her schoolwide art festival. She had been planning the outdoor event for months and was determined to make it happen. Originally conceived by the school’s former art teacher, Evelyn Pender, it has become a school tradition that students look forward to every year.
Rain and lightning sent the school scrambling to identify alternative indoor locations for dozens of activity stations.
Westfall-Crouch said, “It’s really been a group effort on everybody’s part to pull it together last minute because of the rain. The classroom teachers reorganized their schedules, the cafeteria crew, the custodial crew, everybody worked together to make it work for the kids.”
More than 800 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade rotated through a wide variety of art options. Students could decorate visors, create beaded friendship bracelets, make pinwheels, color spinners and origami, and have their portrait drawn by a former Kate Sullivan student, Billy Penn, who is now the art teacher at Killearn Lakes Elementary.
There were many examples of multigenerational ties as retired teachers, parents and former students volunteered for the event. Westfall-Crouch is a former Kate Sullivan student herself, and she was proud that 75 volunteers offered their time to help the day run smoothly.
One of those volunteers was Hannah Cummings, an 11th-grade art student at Leon. She believes that young people should have the opportunity to express their creativity. By volunteering her time, she’s trying to help them do just that.
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