What kids don’t like to draw something that makes them happy?
Conjuring up happy thoughts was the assignment for hundreds of students at Oconto Falls Elementary School participating in a get well card contest sponsored by HSHS St. Clare Foundation. The outcome was dolphins, snowmen, rainbows, flowers and other smile-inducing images.
“Some of them are just so cute,” said Ann Senn, director of philanthropy at HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital, as she hung the pictures on the wall of the nursing station of the impatient wing.
Senn received hundreds of colorful, hand-drawn pictures and encouraging messages to share with patients at the hospital and HSHS St. Vincent Hospital Regional Cancer Center at HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Medical Office Building.
Last month the foundation sponsored Project Happiness and Hope and invited students from local schools to create get well cards. Senn was overwhelmed by the response — having boxes and folders filled with cards — and the quality of the artwork.
“Some of the kids are so talented. It just surprises me how well they can draw at a young age,” she said.
Entries were created by students at St. Anthony School, Oconto Falls; Faith Christian School, Coleman; elementary schools in Abrams, Suring and Coleman; plus elementary and middle schools in Gillett, Lena and Oconto Falls. Senn’s colleagues helped her choose the top designs from each school.
Her intention was to choose the top three cards and reproduce these images for widespread distribution to patients. But when Senn received so many delightful entries, she changed her approach. Instead of choosing just three images, she plans to use all of them. Some cards will be displayed in the hospital’s hallways and others will be distributed to patients.
“That way we can use everybody’s and not just a few for the cards,” she said.
Howard Ehmke, of Wausaukee, was recovering from hip replacement surgery when he received a get well card made by a Coleman Elementary School student.
“That was nice,” he said, looking at the greeting card.
Senn said she’s happy she can give cards to patients throughout the year and brighten the hallways with children’s artwork.
“It just makes it so festive,” she said.
It’s the first year the foundation sponsored the contest, and Senn said she hopes to make it an annual event.
Some teachers incorporated the get well card project into their classes, while others sent the project home for students to complete on their own.
Along with the pictures they drew, students wrote notes to patients. Some even included personal stories, like the message “I know what you’re going through. I had my tonsils removed.”
At Oconto Falls Elementary School where about 400 first- through fifth-graders participated, teacher Kelly Kokko-Ludemann said the greeting card assignment generated a lot of conversation.
“They talked about different people they know in the hospital … and shared lots of stories,” she said. Students had their choice of what they wanted to draw, with the condition they draw something that produced happy thoughts.
Kokko-Ludemann incorporated the contest into the art curriculum by teaching the rule of thirds and requiring the card designs to include something big, something medium-sized (like the get well message) and something small.
Student created a thumbnail image, called a sloppy copy, then drew their contest entry after getting approval from Kokko-Ludemann. Students devoted two or three class periods to the project. They could copy a simple get well message provided by Kokko-Ludemann or create their own, some which were quite creative. One student drew a pheasant, accompanied by the message, “I hope you had a pheasant stay.”
As an introduction to careers in the arts, students pretended they were commercial artists designing a get well card for a customer.
“You have to please the customer, because they’re buying the product,” Kokko-Ludemann told students.
She also shared stories of her college experience working as a greeting card designer. She told of the real-world demands of pleasing a boss and meeting deadlines for projects.
Kokko-Ludemann said she usually avoids blending student art contests into class work but said the hospital has been a good partner to the school district. Its predecessor, Community Memorial Hospital, donated $75,000 over a three-year period for the development of softball fields at Oconto Falls High School.
“It’s important to give back, and that’s one of the reasons we participated in this,” she said.
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