Burchfield students made a connection with students in a remote mountain village in Honduras through sharing art and music.
Burchfield teachers Jennie O'Dell, art teacher and Susan Randall, music teacher, helped raise awareness and spirits of the Honduran people in the town of San Jose del Negrito, a village of 1600 people in El Negrito District of Yoro Province. Working with a local Pittsburgh branch of a national organization called Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc. Burchfield families and friends helped raise $1,200 for the local community of San Jose.
Dr. Mark Meyer, president of Shoulder to Shoulder—Pittsburgh, introduced Mrs. O'Dell to a UPMC intern, Jennifer Hwang, who made her first trip to San Jose in March 2015. Ms. Wang spoke to the Honduran students in Spanish and shared a video of Burchfield students saying hello. She also took art supplies donated from Burchfield to the 1st- to 3rd-grade students of Central San Jose and had them make art trading cards for Shaler Area students.
Mrs. O'Dell’s third-grade students then sewed miniature pillows for the students using fabric from Malaysia from a prior art exchange in 2014. A total of 56 pillows were delivered and passed out the students of Central San Jose school. Second-grade students from Burchfield also made art trading cards for the students that included Spanish and English. Students of both countries learned new words from each other and viewed each other making the art on video.
Music was also a component as the students from San Jose shared their voices in a round of “If Your Happy and You Know It” in Spanish. The Burchfield students sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for the Spanish students in English.
Money was raised by the parents and families of Burchield during the Spring 2015 Art Show.
“Connecting Hearts Through the Arts” is the name of the program Mrs. O'Dell and Mrs. Randall started in 2014 with their first exchange with the Jireh Home in Malaysia.
“We hope to make a meaningful connection among students through the Arts, even to places 9,000 miles away,” said Mrs. O'Dell.