Bellevue students make BIG difference

BELLEVUE, Iowa — Camryn Reeg dipped a brush into green paint and dabbed it onto a 4-foot-by-8-foot canvas set up in the Bellevue Arts Council’s downtown studio.

The already-painted rolling hills and sky stretched across the top of the mural, with the remaining blank space waiting to be filled with a painting of Potter’s Mill, flour and a farmer working in a field.

When finished, the mural will go to the Andrew Jackson Care Facility — a residential facility near Andrew serving people with mental illnesses — providing more decor for the walls there. The facility is operated by Imagine the Possibilities Inc., formerly DAC Inc.

“It’s exciting that people will get a use out of it,” said Reeg, a junior at Bellevue High School.

She is creating the mural as part of Bellevue BIG, a program of the Bellevue Community School District that allows students to take the lead on projects that make an impact on their community and world.

Those opportunities ultimately prepare them for their next stages in life and help them tap into different modes of learning, officials said.

“I think that’s what we’re getting at with these kids (is) there’s not one way of doing things. There’s not one way of learning,” said Matt Jaeger, a social studies teacher who helps lead the program.

(full article…)

BY ALLIE HINGA Dubuque Telegraph Herald, January 25, 2017

This copyrighted material is posted with permission of TH Media