BEMUS POINT – A locally funded art project at Maple Grove Jr./Sr. High School has grown into a much larger outreach for local students, teachers and veterans. The Teacher Empowering Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program through the Cattaraugus County Council on the Arts was awarded last year to local artist Renee Pye and Maple Grove Jr./Sr. High School. This was the fifth arts partnership grant awarded to Maple Grove Jr./Sr. High School. Pye was the supervisor of the grant.

Three Maple Grove Jr./Sr. High School teachers partnered with Pye to create a student-based project that involved history, English and art. History teacher Scott Cummings assisted his students with choosing a person, place or thing between 1776 and 1876 to be the theme of a postage stamp. English teacher Elizabeth Abbey then instructed the students to compose a paragraph describing why their design should be chosen for a stamp. Pye, along with art teacher Kevin Johnson worked with the seventh grade students to design a commemorative stamp of their chosen subject. The students created posters of their stamp design with acrylic paint.

The outreach component of the grant was to turn the posters into postcards. The students planned on sending the postcards to area veterans. However, Pye had to locate at least 60 veterans in the county to send the completed postcards. She asked local veteran and American Legion member Tom Jones. Jones is a member of the Fenton History Center’s Vets Finding Vets program, whose purpose is to assist the Fenton Research Center with veteran-focused research as well as assisting the living veterans with researching their own families. Jones asked Veterans Finding Veterans Coordinator Barbara Cessna to help gather the necessary veterans’ names and addresses.

The goal of 60 names quickly multiplied to 195 names. Pye graciously accepted the additional names but needed to find more student artists. She partnered with teacher Jody Conley’s fifth grade class at Bemus Point Elementary and Mike Chitester’s fourth grade class at Fenner Elementary in Falconer to create the additional postcards needed to reach all 195 veterans.

The veterans were very touched to receive a thank you from the students and the students learned about the veterans and their local stories. The posters from the project will be displayed in Floral Hall during the Chautauqua County Fair.

“All the participants would like to thank the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program, and The Cattaraugus County Council on the Arts, and a special thank you to Maple Grove School for supporting this project which combined art, history and English into a single endeavor for the benefit of many,” said Pye.

The expression of the veterans’ service to our country through the student’s writings and artwork has made a powerful connection between the past and the present.