Change-Making is an Art

Marea Olafson is an art teacher at Eston Composite School. She teaches students from Grades 7-9 in a “Take Action” art class. The class requires students to complete projects in which they take action, and what better way to take action than through Free the Children’s Adopt a Village program? As a class, they have chosen to support Free The Children’s brand new sustainability pillar: Agriculture and Food Security.

For their project, Marea and her students took on We Create Change—but with a twist! She challenged her students to raise $3000 in pennies. If the students met their goal, four male teachers at Eston Composite would shave their own heads! The students eagerly went out and collected as many pennies as possible so that they could have the satisfaction of seeing their teachers’ heads shaved.

In just 13 days the students collected over four jugs of pennies totalling $1,100! While they are still on their way to achieving their goal, the amount they have raised in just 13 days is outstanding. The four male teachers acknowledged the tremendous work that the students had done and agreed to still cut their hair. To top it all off, they agreed to dye their hair the school colors!

Still in search of a creative outlet for her class, Marea came up with an exceptional idea! She and her students recreated pictures from Free the Children’s water projects by projecting the images onto canvases and filling them with the pennies they raised!

Join us as We Create Change and bring clean water to 100,000 people. Order your penny bag at www.freethechildren.com/wecreatechange