Students can bring out the colored pencils and paint for another Kearsley art sticker challenge ending Friday, May 8.

Mrs. Courtney Emerick and Mr. Kirk Timmons will judge the competition, featuring submissions from all grade levels.

Emerick said that judging these pieces will be based on individuality.

“Timmons and I will view and discuss all the entries we receive. Then we will determine a winner,” Emerick said. “Creativity and quality will be factors in determining success.”

The challenge requires people to think outside the box and represent the theme, “Clean hands and kind hearts will bring us back together,” as well as they can.

Emerick said that the theme reflects the current state of affairs and wants to bring positivity through art.

“Timmons came up with the theme,” Emerick said, “but we wanted to do something (relating to) COVID-19 to help students cope during this really difficult time.”

With teachers and students facing the challenges of online school, Emerick wanted to bring the community together through art.

“We miss seeing our students every day and this was another opportunity for us to try to connect with them,” Emerick said. “We included Fiedler students and are encouraging other buildings to participate as well because we want it to be a community project.

It will take a community working together to successfully beat COVID-19 so it seemed like a natural fit to collaborate.”

There will be four winners, all receiving the prize of a Kearsley art hornet sticker.

Emerick hopes that this art challenge encourages creativity and kindness while students are under quarantine.

“What I get out of it is an opportunity to be collaborative with another amazing teacher, and together we get to encourage our students to participate in a project that encourages kindness,” Emerick said. “It also provides a creative outlet for our students while they’re at home.

This creativity is a great way to cope with stress, boredom, and a range of other emotions they may be experiencing while quarantined.”

The middle school contest entries will be sent to Timmons while the high school contest entries are to be sent to Emerick or turned in through the art Google classroom.