Killian, 14, a Burroughs freshman, volunteered both days, explaining the fundraiser to the public and ushering those who had bought student artwork to the cashier.
“I sold over $100 of artwork over the last two days,” he said. “I say hello, greet people and tell them about the products and invite them to browse.”
Some of the artistic items in his booth included handmade lapel pins. Students had also made sculptures as well as earrings and bracelets out of recycled items. They tightly rolled up small strips of pages from magazines, glued them and varnished them, creating paper beads, said Beth Morrison, Burroughs art teacher.
“Sterling silver beads and semiprecious gemstones are interspersed with them to make bracelets and earrings,” she said.
In honor of Earth Day, the Burroughs Environmental Club planned a contestfor students to create artworks out of recycled materials.
Receiving first place and $100 was Rebekah Niver’s “Proud Peacock.”
“It’s a cool peacock sculpture made with magazines, plastic bottle tops and a plastic bottle for the body,” Morrison said.
Michelle Tules won second prize and $50 for her sculpture of a bottlenose dolphin she called “Dietcoke Dolphin.”
“She cut open aluminum cans and used the wide strips to sculpt the dolphin,” Morrison said. “It was beautiful.”
Stephanie Kalemkerian won third place and $25.
Students in the club also had a booth they shared with adults who live in the Senior Artists Colony, where they created tote bags out of old T-shirts, Morrison said.
“We did a drive and begged people for old T-shirts and collected several hundred of them,” she said. “Parents sewed the bottom, so we only had to make a few cuts and decorate the bags.”
Half the money raised at the art booths goes to the Burbank Arts and Educational Foundation to provide arts for all students in Burbank, and the other half goes back to the schools that created it, Killian said.
“Some of the students came by the booth with their parents and asked where their artwork was, and we told them it sold,” he said. “They get happy, and it makes them feel like they are doing something for someone.”
The art festival is a great way to get the Burbank Arts and Education Foundation’s name out there, said Sandra Cavaliheiro, foundation board member and principal of Walt Disney Elementary School.
“The goal is to raise $10 million over the next 10 years, or however long it takes, and the money goes to support arts education in the schools.”
