Through their conversations with Alyssa Titche, who grew up in East Grand Rapids, they learned that many Senegalese children rarely have opportunities to draw or color, and that many adults there have never seen or held a crayon or colored pencil. Since art supplies are not sold in Thies, the city where Alyssa Titche lives, the Murray Lake students spearheaded a schoolwide campaign to collect pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, watercolor paints and plain white paper to ship to them. They made a plan for how to collect the supplies, drew posters to hang around the school, wrote a notice for Principal Brent Noskey to read during morning announcements, designed a flier to be sent home to parents, and wrote a speech that they delivered in pairs to every classroom. Today, up to six boxes of supplies were to be readied for shipment to Senegal, where Titche is working with a Senegalese artist and two of the poorer elementary schools to plan a three-day arts workshop for the children. An up-to-$500 grant from the school district's service learning fund will help pay shipping costs. "Diane's kids provide me with a reminder of how entrepreneurial Americans are, even at a young age," Alyssa Titche, 23, wrote in an e-mail. "They saw a need, and they came up with a plan and organized themselves to fill that need. They are doing an amazing thing."
Students at Murray Lake Elementary School been communicating since January via Skype with Alyssa Titche, a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal
Murray Lake Elementary students in Lowell send art supplies to Senegal
By Morgan Jarema | The Grand Rapids Press
May 07, 2010, 8:06AM
G0507CrayonsForAfrica.jpgOctavian Cantilli | The Grand Rapids PressEllie Cooper, 8, and other third-graders in Diane Titche's class at Murray Lake Elementary School pack Crayons, pencils, paper and other coloring supplies into boxes destined for children in Senegal, Africa, on Thursday.LOWELL -- Jada Murley doesn't have horses of her own -- yet, she says -- but she loves to draw them.
Ellie Cooper has an area of her bedroom decked out as an art studio, where she mostly dreams up cartoons and comics.
Neither of the girls can imagine not being able to draw, but they learned this year that art is out of reach for some children.
And when they found that out, Ellie said, their first question was: "What can we do to help?"
Jada and Ellie, ages 9 and 8, respectively, and their classmates in Diane Titche's third-grade class at Murray Lake Elementary have spent the past month collecting art supplies that soon could be enjoyed by as many as 500 children in West Africa.
The class has been communicating since January via Skype with Titche's niece, Alyssa Titche, a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.
Through their conversations with Alyssa Titche, who grew up in East Grand Rapids, they learned that many Senegalese children rarely have opportunities to draw or color, and that many adults there have never seen or held a crayon or colored pencil.
Since art supplies are not sold in Thies, the city where Alyssa Titche lives, the Murray Lake students spearheaded a schoolwide campaign to collect pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, watercolor paints and plain white paper to ship to them.
They made a plan for how to collect the supplies, drew posters to hang around the school, wrote a notice for Principal Brent Noskey to read during morning announcements, designed a flier to be sent home to parents, and wrote a speech that they delivered in pairs to every classroom.
Today, up to six boxes of supplies were to be readied for shipment to Senegal, where Titche is working with a Senegalese artist and two of the poorer elementary schools to plan a three-day arts workshop for the children.
An up-to-$500 grant from the school district's service learning fund will help pay shipping costs.
"Diane's kids provide me with a reminder of how entrepreneurial Americans are, even at a young age," Alyssa Titche, 23, wrote in an e-mail. "They saw a need, and they came up with a plan and organized themselves to fill that need. They are doing an amazing thing."
