YORBA LINDA, Calif. _ Yorba Linda High School students have created one-of-a-kind art pieces to help orphans in Jordan feel special.
Students in Carol Carson's photography classes made the 23 pop art-inspired portraits for teenagers living in orphanages near Amman, Jordan's most populous city.
"I wanted to bring very happy colors into the picture so that if they are feeling down, they can just look over at it and hopefully it will put a smile on their face," said Justin Ehlen, a sophomore who created a portrait of 18-year-old Moath.
The YLHS students worked with photographs of the children provided by The Memory Project. Wisconsin resident Ben Schumaker launched the project in 2004 after volunteering at an orphanage in Guatemala and learning the kids had few, if any, keepsakes.
"I thought wouldn't it be cool if we got pictures from kids in orphanages and created portraits for them," Schumaker said.
The digitally created portraits the Yorba Linda students made were for teens 16 to 19 years old who are aging out of orphanages and preparing to transition into independent living.
"For them, the portraits that the Yorba Linda students did will be like senior portraits," Schumaker said. "Those teenagers are going to have those cool digital works that they made to take with them out into adulthood."
Lindsey Sullivan, a 16-year-old junior, said she wanted to show the orphans there are people who care about them.
She used Photoshop to make a 1960s-inspired portrait for 18-year-old Amneh, whose favorite color is blue.
"It was a small kind deed," Sullivan said. "I'm hoping that she would open it and just feel loved in knowing that there is someone out there that is thinking about her, even if she doesn't have a family of her own. That she is still in someone else's thoughts and prayers."
The portraits created by Carson's students were delivered in February and the students recently watched a video of the children in refugee camps and orphanages receiving the art work created by students in Orange County and throughout the United States.
"It touched my heart a lot to see them be so happy over something that I thought was so small," said Misa Okamato, a 16-year-old junior, who created a portrait for Esraa, 19, and Mustafa, 18. "I would definitely do it again."
Carson said she wanted to help her students connect with the outside world and make someone's life just a little bit better.
"This is an affluent area and an affluent school," Carson said. "When you compare it to the lives children have in other countries who have undergone such trauma, horrible trauma, and heartache, for (my students) to see the difference and to participate in this project is so valuable."
To date, The Memory Project has delivered more than 100,000 portraits to children in 43 countries.
