Here is a photo of the collection of crutches that my students decorated and donated to an international medical outreach program to be shipped overseas to those in need. We had worked on them over the course of last year, collecting, cleaning, and decorating with colleagues and parents at open houses, the Texas Art Education Association conference, as well as locally. It was a great conversation starter, as students only understand the inconvenience of a sprained ankle or a hurt knee and not the long-term inability to move for those who are permanently physically-challenged. The reality that individuals deal with lost limbs or paralysis due to illness or natural disaster, like hundreds in Haiti for example, was a real eye-opener, and charged my students with a mission to create a gift of hope and at least, partial mobility.
