Piedmont’s Art I students are currently helping to paint a better future for children in Nicaragua and Indonesia, by creating paintings of hands to be sent to the Students Rebuild program.

The hand pieces are decorated tracings of real hands on nine by 12 paper, art teacher Gillian Bailey said. For every hand that is made, the Bezos Family Foundation will donate $1.90—up to $500,000—to Save the Children’s programs that empower youth in Nicaragua and Indonesia to rise into a life they dream for themselves, according to the Students Rebuild website. The money will allow children in need to focus on their education, rather than financial concerns, Bailey said.

Bailey said she is using the program this year in her Art 1 classes as both a service and a learning opportunity. She also said that the hands actually get sent to the place they are impacting.

“[It’s] not just a donor donating, it’s actually students affecting the nation[s],” Bailey said.

Bailey said she has the students doing two hands just because it is also experience with watercolor, which they will get better at through more use and practice.

Junior Maya Fall is a participant in the program through her Art 1 class and she said they are well on their way with this project.

“Our hand pieces are— I think mine is pretty much finished—most of the class are pretty much done. Basically our goals with this project are essentially to express our art as well as help individuals who need it,” Fall said.

Fall also said the program is important because it is centered around helping children in poverty reach their own goals.

“Helping those people who maybe wouldn’t have this chance without you is really important,” Fall said.

As for her piece, Fall said the hands she created are more about expression of color.

“A lot of art is mood,” Fall said. “The colors of a piece that you choose can really change the effect of it. I thought that using sort of warmer colors could put a positive effect to the project because that’s what [Students Rebuild] is intended to do.”

Freshman Tom Wilson said he has not started his project yet, but wants to try using the different watercolor techniques they have been using in class.

“They do a lot of fantastic things,” said Bailey, who is doing the program for the first time this year. “This fit really well into the curriculum so it’s not that I am doing it on top of the curriculum, it’s that it just fits really well and it’s a natural match too.”

The hands are just being started and are expected to be done by the end of the semester, to be mailed over winter break or in early January, Bailey said.

About 75 of the people participating in this process are art students, meaning even people outside of the art classroom can help with donations through Students Rebuild, Bailey said.

“Anybody can participate,” Bailey said.