Plainfield students help those with disabilities create art projects

PLAINFIELD – As students paired up last week with a partner in an art class at Plainfield East High School, Niko Witt sat by himself waiting to paint a tiny white pumpkin.

“Niko, do you have a buddy?” said Michele Rickerson, a special education teacher.

Watt is a senior student who is part of the Secondary Community Occupational Real-Life Education – or SCORE – program at Plainfield East. The program focuses on functional skills for students in special education.

“I’m right here,” said Iman Abdur Rab.

Rab, a junior student, is a volunteer for the Art Buddies program that meets monthly with students in the SCORE program to create art projects. Rab helped Witt paint a pumpkin while teaching him how to mix primary and secondary colors to produce other colors.

She helped Witt paint his pumpkin light blue and showed him how to use the brush in a way that allowed for more coats.

“I love people helping,” she said about becoming an art buddy.

Students in SCORE have taken art classes since 2008, but the Art Buddies program allows them to work one-on-one with their peers. Ackerson said students in SCORE get to socialize with peers outside the program through Art Buddies while developing their creative skills.

“The fact that it’s hands-on and visual and auditory is helping them learn,” Ackerson said.

Art Buddies is in its second year and began when students part of the National Art Honor Society wanted to find a community service project to participate in, said Cindy Egizio, Plainfield East art teacher and co-sponsor of the National Art Society. The students decided to work with the SCORE program on art projects.

In September, the students made a bottle cap key chain.

“It’s a chance for them to take what they learn and pass it on,” Egizio said about the art honors students. “Art brings joy to all people on some level.”

Jenny Trevino, a junior student and Art Buddies volunteer, worked with Melissa Marquez to paint a pumpkin purple and fiery red. Like Rab, Trevino said she wanted to volunteer because she likes helping people.

“There are people who use art in different ways to express themselves. … Imagination is how someone defines themselves as a person,” Trevino said.