Who knew that a great idea for art can come from a math teacher?

Math Teacher Mr. Joseph Grich was watching TV when a commercial came on promoting something called The Memory Portrait Project, in which art students create portraits based on actual photographs of orphans and send the artwork to the orphans themselves. The portraits are a powerful piece of self-identity, which serve as a valuable keepsake later in life for the young children and teenagers.

Mr. Grich thought it was a good idea for the students to participate and informed Fine Arts Teacher Mrs. Amy Klein about it. The Fine Art students have been working on this project since early December and plan to send them to the orphans by the end of February.

The extremely skilled art students create original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world, who have been abused, neglected, and abandoned.

“It’s a really nice thing for children to help children,” said Mrs. Klein.

Mrs. Klein believed that these portraits were going to help the orphans to increase their awareness of self-identity. She believes that this was a way for the children to give to those who are less fortunate.

The art students enjoyed drawing these portraits and are very proud of how they turned out.

“[Orphans] don’t have a lot,” said Fine Arts Major Christine Ramos.” [What’s] even better is that they have these portraits of themselves to reassure them that they do exist in other places around the world.”

Ramos added that she really enjoyed this experience because in various ways she felt a connection with the orphans.

Students get help from people involved with The Memory Project, who provided digital photographs of the children, instructions for making the portraits, and delivery of the portraits to the orphanages abroad.

Ben Schumaker, the founder of The Memory Project was inspired to create this project from a Guatemalan man who was once an orphan himself and felt that much of his childhood was forgotten. The man had no pictures of him as a child or any of his parents. He wanted to tell his story as an orphan so he held a session with a group of university students that volunteered at the orphanage.

Among the students was Mr. Schumaker, who was very moved by the story the man told, and the rest is history: he created the memory portrait project as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization after returning home.

For more information on The Memory Project, visit www.thememoryproject.org.