Chicken coops and art may seem to be unlikely partners,
but Anna Meyrick has found a way to bring them together.
Meyrick, the art teacher at Oregon City’s Crossroads School, and her students will host an art show, opening on March 6 at the Carnegie Center.
Featured at the show, which continues throughout the month, will be a student-built chicken coop, student art based on the theme of “Global Community,” and Meyrick’s art, which will be for sale.
Why chicken coops?
Crossroads students usually go on a humanitarian-aid trip every year, often in conjunction with Northwest Medical Teams, where they assist in building schools and housing.
This year, because of a variety of issues, there will be no field trip. Since students still wanted to do something to help, they have chosen to get involved with the Chicken Coop Income Generating Project in Kenya and Mexico.
Meyrick explained that the project raises money to give to women and children in developing countries, so that they can build chicken coops and raise chickens.
The women, often widows, form co-ops, and together sell the chickens and eggs to generate an income for themselves.
“This empowers the women and can pay school fees for the children,” Meyrick said.
She noted that the chicken coop project provides loans to the women, and when they pay the loans back, that provides “seed money” for the next group of women.
Meyrick said she chose to work with people in Kenya, because one of the young men helping with the program there started out as her daughter’s pen pal.
“He has to work three months, picking coffee beans, to earn $40,” so he can pay school fees, Meyrick noted.
“I wanted my students to see how hard other kids work to go to school,” she added.
Kathi Gerspach, who teaches environmental science, cultural awareness and health at Crossroads School, also is involved with the chicken coop project.
In fact, she is going with a group of Clackamas County residents to Uganda in June to work with the Invisible Children project.
“They are refugees from the war in Sudan – we are taking money and they will build chicken coops at the orphanage,” she said.
“The chicken coop project is a cool project. A family can raise eight to 10 chickens and improve their own nutrition, and they can sell the excess [eggs or meat] and bring in money,” she explained.
Studies have shown that the chicken coop project “radically changed the quality of life and improved the health of children,” Gerspach added.
She also said that the project provides plans to build the coops and veterinarians are on-site to make sure the chickens are healthy.
“It’s a good practical way to help someone in a developing country and provide a way for them to have better nutrition and an income,” she said.
Crossroads students are building a coop for display at the Carnegie Center, and they are making posters to explain to visitors the benefits of the chicken coop project.
One of the builders is Kelly Gooderham, a senior.
For him the benefit of the chicken coop is it “makes the family self sufficient and gives them a way to create their own resources,” he said.
Mosaics on display showcase student talents
Meanwhile, back in the art world, Meyrick has asked her students to design mosaics around the theme of community building.
They are focusing on five areas she said: clean water and sanitation, food security, health and wellness, education and income-generating opportunities.
She hopes visitors will come to the opening of the art show on March 6 and chat with students about their projects and their art.
Students will also be serving a barbeque meal, with all proceeds going to the chicken coop project.
Anthony Akins, a senior, will exhibit his mosaic of a cow, to showcase his project on food security.
“Students should know more about how we get food and how in other countries kids are starving – that needs to be more publicized,” he said.
Meyrick will also show her own art, and will display a large mosaic piece she calls a “Tree of Life.”
This piece came into being during her visit last summer to the international AIDS conference in Toronto, Canada.
She set up a “global village” at the conference, and brought in art supplies. She then collected leaves designed by people from all over the world and attached them to the tree.
“The purpose of the tree is to symbolize the way we are all connected in a global community. I designed the piece, and my students are helping to fill in the glass,” she said.
The piece incorporates 24,000 BB’s, and there are images under the clear glass tiles, Meyrick noted.
She added that she has set up a non-profit organization to “assist with community development projects locally and globally.” Her website can be accessed at www.herainternationalcommunity.org
The “Tree of Life” will not be for sale at the Carnegie Center show, Meyrick said, because she plans to take it with her to the international AIDS conference in Mexico City in 2008.
The Big Read drawing to a close
Groups across the county will discuss "Fahrenheit 451" this week
By Ellen Spitaleri
The Clackamas Review, Feb 26, 2008, Updated Feb 26, 2008
Clackamas Community College instructor and set designer Chris Whitten built a giant replica of the book ‘Fahrenheit 451’ to be burnt as part of the ongoing Big Read event.
Chris Whitten / Clackamas Review
Students in Anna Meyrick’s art classes and Carol Whitten’s English classes have been discussing free speech issues since September, so The Big Read “tied in so nicely with our subject matter,” Meyrick said.
The Crossroads School students are reading “Fahrenheit 451,” discussing it and making mosaics on some aspect of individual and intellectual freedom, she added. The Big Read is a month-long program in Clackamas County with events and readings centered around the book.
Whitten, who just started teaching at the Oregon City school in September, said she likes the flexibility of an alternative school curriculum, so that she can ask students to tell her what they think is important.
“We’re teaching students to think for themselves, and that is what ‘Fahrenheit 451’ is all about. Reading is in decline and information is so condensed — I want students to take a look at the world around them and ask themselves if we are getting the whole picture,” she said.
Student opinions on book
Justin Smith, 15, said his favorite part of the book is the realism.
“Stuff in the book has happened, or is happening. We have TV’s the size of walls and people aren’t reading anymore,” he noted.
“A lot of people [today] depend on technology in their everyday life instead of going out and exploring the real world,” said Brittney Kassahn, 17, pointing out the similarities in the book to today’s world.
“It’s a good book to compare how society is today — it is strange how he [Ray Bradbury] predicted things,” added Kayla Simmons, 15.
Both Amanda Heil, 17, and Allison Hill, 13, pointed out how the book portrays news as focusing on entertainment value, and that same focus exists today.
Ashley Osburn, 17 agreed, and added, “All this fake stuff on the news is not important — we should focus on what’s going on around us. Just watching TV is not a life — we should make our own opinions, not just listen to other people’s opinions.”
Meyrick said that the student mosaics will be on display at the Carnegie Center on Saturday, March 1, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., during the BBQ and silent auction fundraiser for the Crossroads School’s trip to San Jose del Cabo. The cost is $25, and the money will enable the students to travel to Mexico, where they will “build a shade structure for handicapped children, pour a concrete floor for a handicapped woman and work with handicapped children doing art projects.”
For more information, call the Crossroads School at 503-655-2755.
Final events for The Big Read of Clackamas County:
Feb. 27 — A “Fahrenheit 451” discussion group will meet from 7 to 8 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Clackamas Town Center.
Feb. 28 — A movie viewing and book discussion will take place at the Gladstone Library at 6:30 p.m.
Feb. 28 — Join a book discussion with facilitator and teacher Mark Flamoe, who has a background in teaching “Fahrenheit 451,” at the Oak Lodge Library at 6:30 p.m.
