In total, the project has spanned both Santa Rosa and Escambia County, reaching over 400 kids across five schools: Oakcrest Elementary, Oriole Beach Elementary, Gulf Breeze Elementary, Pensacola Redeemer School, Lutheran Elementary, as well as one group of homeschool students at the Our Lady of Assumption Mission in Pensacola.
Every year, our school’s chapter of Key Club is responsible for financing and carrying out one or more large-scale service projects in our community. For the past 15 years, they have held the Dictionary Project, where they provide an entire grade level of students from local elementary schools with dictionaries and visit schools to instruct them on how to use the books, often featuring fun games like trying to find the longest word.
This year, however, Key Club vice president, junior Amaya Harper, is switching it up.
Rather than repeating the same project for yet another year, she decided to put a spin on things.
“I kept hearing about schools defunding art programs, which made me really sad because creativity is so important, especially for kids. That’s where the idea for this project came from,” Amaya explains.
With many schools struggling to preserve art classes in curriculum, the club coordinated a new project— providing students with their own boxes of supplies so they aren’t reliant on having an in-school art class to be able to enjoy being creative.
Amaya shares, “I hope the art project inspires elementary students to explore art, remember that they can be creative, and believe that they can do whatever they set their minds to. I also hope that we, as high schoolers, can inspire them to eventually get involved in Key Club and give back to their communities.”
Club members came together at morning meetings to assemble the boxes and bring the project to life. Each box contained various art supplies like colored pencils, a watercolor paint palette, stickers, materials like colorful paper and ribbon to make a craft, a journal, special erasers, and more.
Jack Gander, Kiwanis representative who attends Key Club’s weekly meetings and has watched the project take shape, says, “I was thrilled that our club chose the art project, which includes all our members, [and] our members have already logged over 70 hours of service time. We believe each third-grade student will develop a greater appreciation for art in the future.”
Ultimately, boxes were distributed to six school classes of students, nearly 30 classrooms in total. While visiting classrooms, members taught children the importance of creativity and a growth mindset, as well as guided them on how to create their own unique craft with the materials.
For schools facing defunding in their art programs or the lack of one, such as Oriole Beach Elementary School which has been without a set art class for four years, club officers assert that this undertaking is a tremendous help to the students.
“I hope the project can support schools without an art program, like Oriole Beach, by helping teachers provide creative lessons without worrying about the cost of supplies, which I now understand can be very expensive,” Amaya explains.
Seeing the success of this project and the joy sparked in both the third-grade students and service members alike, the club plans to carry on this new tradition next school year.
“This art project has a lot of moving parts that our Key Club members have handled wonderfully. Seeing our members all work so hard to put this project together for the elementary school kids speaks volumes to their work ethic and commitment to service,” Mycah Daniel, the Key Club sponsor for the 2025-2026 school year, commends, “This is the first large scale service project I have been able to witness as the Key Club faculty advisor and I could not be more impressed and proud of how it has turned out.”
To any students inclined toward helping others and their community, Daniel leaves one parting message: “Join Key Club!”