For children who have spent the last year trying to keep up with all the rules about where to sit, stand, walk, and wear masks, Michael Mayer offers a morale boost.
The Grade 2 teacher at St. Anthony of Padua Elementary in Vancouver created personalized T-shirts for his students with their own faces and the smiles of all their classmates.
“It was a way of remembering the kids and I thought it was a good way to commemorate the year,” he said.
“It’s also a spiritual and community building thing. I want some kids to have some pride in their community and their group and see that they fit in and belong.”
This is the second school year Mayer has created drawings of each of his students (with their parents’ permission), coloured them with watercolours, and had them printed on T-shirts. He said last year’s overwhelmingly positive response – with Grade 3 students proudly sporting them, or wearing them to sleep – motivated him doing it again this year.
“These kids are together for seven years,” he said. “It’s a way for them to bond together.”
Mayer admits his motivations are also a bit selfish. He teaches drawing and painting one day a week for students in various grades, and the custom T-shirt project is a way to practise his skills.
“They want to see my sketchbook. They want to see the process. It generates for them the idea that they can accomplish things like that, too,” he said. “It’s a way for them to see that I walk the walk.”
Mayer asks for a $10 donation to help cover the costs of the T-shirts, but ensures each student gets one, payment or not. He also plans on framing the one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork this year and giving them to his students with personalized messages as an end-of-year gift.
“I’m hoping to generate memories.”
