Students spread kindness through painting project
Published 12:10 am Thursday, April 11, 2024
At front, Ny’asia Brandon, and Reese Lauderdale, pair up to work on one of the walls in the actiivities room. - Karen Kistler
Aiden Pincay reaches some of the high parts of the wall and Blythe Elliott and Sarah Shell work on the lower area in the main museum room. - Karen Kistler
Sara Culbert, kneeling, and Anna Shell provide help in painting at the museum.
From left, Brooks Hubbard, Drew Blackwell and Macon Fuller work as a team in the kitchen area. - Karen Kistler
Beth Nance, executive director of the N.C. Museum of Dolls, Toys and Miniatures , hands out paint rollers for the students to begin their painting project. - Karen Kistler
Wanting to be a part of bettering their community is what motivated the students in South Rowan High School’s Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy to volunteer their time at a Day of Caring project.
Sara Culbert, a sophomore at the school, said, “we are here because we want to make a difference in our community and we like to help out and this is a great way to do so.”
“Positivity for the community,” said senior Macon Fuller, when asked why he felt it was important to give of his time.
The 30-plus students from the local high school gathered April 4 at the North Carolina Museum of Dolls, Toys and Miniatures’ new building to help paint the interior of it, thus preparing them for their relocating to this new location at 440 Salisbury Ave., Spencer.
The chance for the students to help came about as the result of them searching for their spring impact project, said Angela Blackwell, a teacher at South Rowan High School, and the facilitator of the academy.
“This opportunity came around and we all talked about the different opportunities, and this is the one that they chose,” said Blackwell, who also said that this project was arranged through Jessica Wallace, the school’s coordinator, and Beth Nance, the executive director of the museum.
Having the students come and help at the museum “is just such a blessing to this nonprofit,” said Nance. “For the kids to come out and be able to learn something, a life skill, but also to be able to contribute to the community I think is amazing.”
And just as Nance was excited for the students to come and help them, Blackwell shared that feeling was mutual.
“This is a great opportunity,” she said. “First of all it is a life skill that these students are learning and it gives us an opportunity just to really reach out and help our community, and so we are very excited about this.”
When the students arrived, Nance provided them with a brief history of the museum and what they would be doing that day, which included painting the large main museum area, a multi-purpose room, activities room, kitchen and entrance area.
They divided into groups and headed to the different areas and began tackling the work, and within three and a half hours, they had completed their task.
While working on a portion of the kitchen area, senior Aaron Jones said, “it’s a great experience to be able to help people and make it a better community.”
For Aiden Pincay, a junior, the experience was a valuable one as he said, it was “teaching us valuable lessons in life, it’s really getting us closer to the community essentially.”
Anna Shell and Ny’asia Brandon, both sophomores, each spoke about the community as well as the leadership aspect of the project.
“I think it’s really good to help out in our community,” said Shell, “and we’re learning leadership skills by communicating and networking with different places in our community and meeting new people and helping people out.”
Brandon said this day and what they were doing was important because she feels it’s very important to help out in the community “and know that you’re doing a good cause helping others,” she said, “and I feel like being a leader is not just something you do, it’s a mindset and that’s really important to me to know that I’m making a huge impact.”
In addition to the students providing the manpower, others in the community donated to enable them to do so as Nance said that Lowes donated paint, primer, rollers and paint trays, Sherwin Williams donated some paint for the outside of the building and an anonymous donor gave $500 toward the project.
“Everybody’s just been so kind,” she said.
As for when they anticipate being able to move into their new location, Nance said, “we are moving along and hope to be open by Christmas. If sooner, great.”
