This year, community outreach efforts at Stephen Gaynor School focused on hurricane relief. In the fall, we organized a supply drive to support Briarmeadow Charter School in Texas. Students, teachers, and staff worked together to complete a school supply drive and bake sale. Students also made notes of encouragement for their fellow students. One Orange Cluster student shared, “I am sorry that you had to go through all this. I know that it will be hard for you, but I know you can do it! I am thinking of you.”
Thanks to parent volunteers who organized and staffed the bake sale, as well as all of the Gaynor customers who supported it, nearly $1,500 was raised. An astounding 1,900 school supplies were collected and donated including 124 backpacks, 144 scissors, 245 packs of crayons, and 385 glue sticks.
But our work wasn’t done. After hurricanes struck Puerto Rico, we wanted to help students there too. Briarmeadow Charter School in Texas also wanted to help pay forward the help that came to them in their time of need. Gaynor students worked together in their art classes to create beautiful, collaborative works of art. Each piece was themed around Puerto Rico, inspired by the meaning of “home,” sympathy, kindness, and more. Students used many kinds of mediums including sculpture, paint, mosaic, and mixed media.
Each artwork was displayed in a special gallery on campus during Relatives’ and Special Friends’ Day on April 26 and 27. In order to benefit Puerto Rico, each art piece was photographed by Gaynor’s staff photographer and photography teacher, Adam Gaynor, and commemorated in a set of postcards. Sets of the postcards were sold during Relatives’ and Special Friends’ Day, and over $2,500 was raised over the two day period. All proceeds went directly to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico. We are proud of our students for their compassion and everyone else at Gaynor who is working hard to make this gallery a possibility.
Check out the video below to learn more about “Art Works for Puerto Rico.”