PHOTO GALLERIES Area students create drawings, notes of love for Mother's Day

Kelly Urban, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·3 min read

May 11—CARROLLTOWN, Pa. — In celebration of Mother's Day, area elementary pupils are letting their moms know what they mean to them through artwork and personal notes.

Of the hundreds of submissions received from area classrooms during The Tribune-Democrat's annual tribute to mothers, nearly 90 appear in the special section in Saturday's newspaper.

The cover art for the section was submitted by Betty Ann Bensor's first-grade class at St. Benedict School in Carrolltown.

"With this Mother's Day project, they get to show the love that's there and the world needs more of that," she said. "This is a wonderful project because they cooperate together and brainstorm ideas together. They look forward to it every year and I look forward to doing it with them. The kids think it's so fun to enter a contest."

Bensor said she told the pupils to be creative with the submissions and include reasons why they admire their mothers.

"They love being creative and doing art projects," she said.

"It's great to see what ideas they come up."

For the classroom submission, Bensor said the class had a discussion on how to show love for mothers, even those who have passed away, and they worked around the saying, "Fill the Sky With Love For Mom."

"They came up with a hot air balloon, and they drew hearts and said the hot air balloon will take the hearts up to heaven," she said. "The other hearts come down and stay on earth with their mothers."

St. Benedict first-grader Natalie Smith said her mom is special to her.

"She takes me to school and she makes me lunches," she said. "For Mother's Day, I'm going to help her with chores."

Ava Farabaugh said she made a colorful poster with flowers and wrote "Happy Mother's Day."

"I like that my mom snuggles with me every night in bed until I fall asleep, and when my brothers are gone with my dad, we always snuggle and have a movie night," the St. Benedict student said. "For Mother's Day, I'm going to make her breakfast in bed."

St. Benedict first-grader Aaron Farabaugh said his mom is always there when he needs her.

"She helps me clean the house and helps me with my homework. She helps me do a lot of things," he said.

"For Mother's Day, me and my dad are going to surprise her with one of her favorite things."

Christopher Zupon said his mother takes care of him.

"She gives me food and brings me to school every day," the St. Benedict student said. "This Mother's Day I'm going to give her a picture I drew. I think she'll like it."

All submissions can be viewed online at www.tribdem.com.

Kelly Urban is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. She can be reached at 814-532-5073. Follow her on Twitter @KellyUrban25.