Hillview Elementary School celebrates World Down Syndrome Day

Mar. 26—GROVE CITY — At Hillview Elementary, in the second grade, you'll find a young boy who isn't quite like the rest of his classmates, but is full of love and loved by his whole class.

Andrew MacIsaac is a second-grader with Down syndrome. He still spends plenty of time with his classmates and learns like everyone else. Thursday morning, for World Down Syndrome Day, Andrew and his friends got to participate in an interactive art exhibit in honor of Andrew.

Every year for World Down Syndrome Day, Andrew's mom Amanda tries to create an educational and interactive activity for Andrew's grade.

"This year I wanted the focus to be on art for the kids to learn," Amanda said. "I also wanted to be able to incorporate the element of touch for World Down Syndrome Day."

This year's activity started weeks ago. Each of the six classes in second grade was assigned an artist to learn about. These included artists such as Georgia O'Keefe and Grant Wood.

Each class then spent time creating its own miniature versions of the painter's most famous artworks.

Then, Thursday morning, all the artwork was set up as a display for everyone to see. It was no ordinary art museum, though; each display also had games and activities for the kids to take part in.

These included a station to make flowers, play in some dirt and corn kernels, draw with chalk and spray paint, use building blocks, and create a story with clay and shadow puppets.

"Every year I try to just do something big for all the kids to enjoy," Amanda said. "I come up with the ideas, but [Matthew] Nichols blows them up and makes them huge."

Nichols, the elementary school theater teacher, created large exhibits with statues and artwork for the kids to play with.

Each class got around 30 minutes to play and have fun in the interactive exhibits.

"When I was young, we used to go to the children's museum all the time," Nichols said. "Now kids don't get to do that, so I wanted them to have a similar experience to it."

Andrew enjoyed playing in the corn with his friends the most. He was also given many flowers made by his classmates.

In the center of it all was a local artist making a live chalk painting that the kids could sit and watch her work.

The artist, Erika Thurkins, has been painting with chalk for the last nine years, and has been a professional for the last six. She regularly takes part in chalk festivals.

The kids were also treated with a viewing of a painting being made upside down while they were at lunch.

To top the whole day off, kids in Andrew's class were given "Drew Crew" shirts. These shirts feature the words "Drew Crew" in Andrew's handwriting and a drawing made by Andrew's sister Dillion.

The family will also donate a scholarship to the high school in honor of the "Drew Crew."

Ty Kohler can be contacted at tkohler@alliednews.com.