By Kyle Zukauskas, co-founder of Eli’s Garden of Healing
My mom was an art teacher for over 30 years and was consistently encouraging my brothers and me to create art at school and at home. So using those skills as an adult always evokes some cherished memories.
On April 10th, I was happy to bring some of those crafting skills to Common Ground High School in New Haven as part of their Spring Community Service Day. Students there are required to complete 16 hours of community service to graduate, and this day – their last before spring break – was an opportunity to dedicate the entire (half) day to that cause.
Our day would be dedicated to painting mini flower pots for an upcoming fundraiser at Hamden’s Earth Day celebration.
I showed up with a list of prompts to help the students get their creative juices flowing: the EGH mission, some EGH slogans, etc.
When I was a student, I enjoyed making art but always required some direction to get started. These students needed no such direction. As soon as the supplies were laid out, they got to work. Some of their designs may have been influenced by the prompts, but the students seemed to know what they wanted to create. And I was happy to channel my mom for a morning and encourage them.
