Student Artists Bring Spread Joy in the Community

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When you Rally for the Red Devils, your donation supports the arts at Druid Hills High School.

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The Druid Hills Education Foundation (DHEF) helps fund the Druid Hills Fine Arts Alliance (DHFAA), whose sole focus is to support visual and performing arts at DHHS. Student art organizations at DHHS have a number of initiatives using art to uplift the DHHS and broader community. We are highlighting two of the groups that benefit from this support -- Cards for Humanity and the National Arts Honor Society (NAHS).

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Cards For Humanity

Cards for Humanity service club, a Fine Arts Department-sponsored initiative, has sent more than 1,500 cards to community members in need. Beyond connecting with individuals ranging from hospital workers to elders, they have recognized how making cards in a group setting fosters empathy, connection, and vulnerability. Cards for Humanity hosts workshops with Title-1 elementary schools in DeKalb County to spread the care and joy found within the cardmaking process. They have engaged dozens of students in writing cards to cancer patients, frontline workers, and many others. In lessons, they teach students the value of empathy and community service, as well as the basics of cardmaking and envelope-writing to develop life-long skills.

 

During the holiday season, the Cards for Humanity service club hosts a schoolwide cardmaking event in collaboration with Spanish Club/Spanish Honor Society and French Clubs to send multilingual messages of love and support to detained persons at the Stewart Detention Center. 

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ABOVE: DHHS Cards for Humanity students write messages of hope to spread joy in the community during the holidays.

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National Arts Honor Society

For the past two years, the National Arts Honor Society (NAHS) has hosted donation drives for art supplies for use in art therapy sessions for children in foster care across Georgia. To date, NAHS has collected more than 3,000 items worth an estimated $5,000. 

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Shown here is Ellis Schroeder, president of the NAHS, dropping off supplies to CHRIS 180*, our local nonprofit partner who provides trauma-informed therapy and wrap-around services to families in Georgia.

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NAHS also works to promote student mental health at DHHS. In monthly art workshops called “Art Therapy Afternoons” students can de-stress, eat snacks, relax, and create art, like core value mood boards and visual representations of their emotions during difficult times. These events are open to students across the school.​