On Thursday, Lubeznik Center for the Arts displayed a small sample of their ‘Off The Wall’ art projects to be sold at the Center on April 16th to raise money for Safe Harbor Scholarships within Michigan City Area Schools. Children from Michigan City’s Safe Harbor program and Michiana Resources worked at the Lubeznik Center to create framed one-of-a-kind, handcrafted blackboard or quark board message centers. These creative students used yard signs leftover from the 2013 referendum campaigns for Michigan City schools, combined with donated and recycled materials to create their projects.
Herb Higgin, Director of the Safe Harbor Program, spoke about the fundraising effort. “We had all these yard signs after the elections and thought about ways we could repurpose them,” he said. “Our partnership with the Lubeznik Center for the Arts has been great and long standing, and we worked together to come up with this idea which recycles the signs, gives kids a chance to be creative and artistic, and helps to generate funds. We’re always looking for ways to offset costs and get more children involved in our program.”
Safe Harbor received a large donation from the Michigan City Rotary Club last fall after the organization hosted a Beer and Wine Tasting event to raise money for the program. That fundraising effort is still being utilized in the form of projects such as these. “If we can continue to build the fund with fundraising events like these, we can reach more kids and help more families,” said Higgin.
President of the Michigan City Rotary Club, Mike Hackett, was there to see the projects and show support. “There are so many things we can be doing in the community and these are the kinds of projects we want and need to be involved in,” Hackett said. “By taking a simple project and expanding it to get more kids interested in art and the community, we can have a large, positive impact.”
Janet Bloch, Education Director at the Lubeznik Center, put the call out within the community for donations of supplies and materials. “We received some donated frames,” Bloch said, “and then we went throughout the community, to yard sales and thrift shops, to try and gather as many frames as possible for the students to paint and decorate however they want. We have around 140 made and ready to sell on the 16th.”
“We’re hoping this might turn into something we can do annually,” Bloch continued. “This is a fantastic way to teach kids about art and design, and we’re recycling these signs which also helps a great deal.”
The sale of these Off The Wall projects will take place at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, in Michigan City, on April 16th from 2:30 - 7:00 p.m. Donations of $20 per frame will be used by Safe Harbor to provide academic support and enrichment opportunities for Michigan City students in need.