Brushstrokes of Christmas Magic: Act Vl

Another beautiful Christmas is coming up and it’s been 6 years since our local elementary schools’ 4th grade students started painting Christmas scenes and figures on business windows here in Grants, NM and our neighboring Village of Milan.

“I have an idea” I mentioned to my wife Evelyn, at a time near Christmas in 2017 after I had watched an enterprising artist from a town a hundred miles away paint a Christmas tree on a local business window. He finished painting, collected his fee, and left. I thought to myself “why don’t our local elementary students to paint windows for the Christmas holidays?” I mentioned that idea to Evelyn and her response was “great, let’s see what we can do!” We called our niece, Joanna Fitch, a fourth-grade teacher in Milan at the time, to see how she could help. She talked to her school’s principal Clara DeArmond, and fellow teachers Amanda Valdez and Angela Barela, and our first outing was planned. Twenty 4th graders from Milan Elementary school painted elves, Santa’s, candy canes and Christmas trees on 20 businesses, and at a $20 dollar donation for each, we achieved $400.00 which would go to Grants Mainstreet project (of which I was a member) and split with the Grants/ Milan Rotary Club to support their backpack program, feeding in-need children on weekends. Awesome!

The following years we included children from Mesa View, Mt. Taylor, San Rafael and Bluewater elementary schools and raised $800.00. The following year, $1600. In 2020 Covid hit, and all businesses were receptive to hand drawn paper art as we could not get children out. These towns believe in children, and we raised $2000.

We got children back in 2021 and it was great; over 40 businesses and 80 some windows decorated and $2000.00 raised. Kids ate lunches of donated Domino’s pizza, Subway, and Sonic meals. Happy children and more beautiful windows… Math quizzes topping each day to keep in line with school requirements were achieved with donated and sharpened pencils from NMSU Grants Branch.

2022 window decorating netted $2400.00 with 51 businesses bringing the total over the years to over $9K and more than 500 total young artists’ efforts since inception, while learning teamwork and community participation. We also hung hand-drawn Christmas paper art in 40 rooms at the Good Samaritan Society and in 20 patient rooms at Grants Cibola General Hospital, sharing the Christmas spirit with even more people.

This year, we celebrate our 6th year of this wonderful Christmas event. We had 53 businesses participate, totaling 94 hand-painted and decorated windows, and 23 windows decorated with hand drawn paper Christmas art, totaling 115 pages altogether. This year children, enjoyed Sonic meals, Domino’s Pizza, and one group was fed by Grants’ Good Samaritan Society. This year’s fund raising is going wholly to the Milan-Grants Rotary Foundation backpack program to feed in-need children on weekends. Generous citizens also donated to the cause. This year’s total is $2770.00 bringing the grand total over the years to almost $12K and over 600 children have participated, learning teamwork and the importance of community involvement. Again, math quizzes after lunch using pencils donated by NMSU Grants Branch.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas: Brushstrokes of Christmas Magic Act VI!

Merry Christmas!