These Garfield HS students painted ceiling tiles to cheer up young hospital patients
A suggestion from an anxious young patient trying to make it through a CT scan caught the attention of the nurse taking care of her and ended up, months later, as a text message on Garfield High School biology teacher Victoria Derevyanik’s phone.
"Can you help get this done," texted Derevyanik’s long-time friend Joanne Taormina, a radiology technician at Hackensack University Medical Center. The hospital wanted ceiling tiles to distract and soothe young patients undergoing ultrasounds and scans; they were hoping a high school would take on the project.
The result, painted in exultant colors by a group of Garfield high school students, were 24 ceiling tiles now newly installed in rooms where patients undergo scans and procedures using radiology. Depictions of characters like Tom and Jerry, Elsa and Anna from the Disney movie "Frozen" and "The Incredibles" family charging fist-forward, are among the painstakingly recreated images of beloved animated characters and encouraging quotes on tiles that your eyes would otherwise glaze over in a hospital. To the 13 Garfield high schoolers and their teachers visiting the radiology wing for the first time on a Thursday earlier this month, it was a moment of disbelief mixed with squeals of delight.
“Seeing it on the ceiling is, kind of crazy, I guess. I’m like, wow. Speechless.” said one of the students, Bridgette Taipe.
Across the hall from her, the tiles made an impression on 66-year-old patient Bill Spahr, from Newburgh, New York, who said he loved the characters even though he was not the intended audience.
“I love it, it was just so different, god bless you,” he told the students.
The tiles are part of The Daisy Project, named after the young woman who mused about how nice it would be to have uplifting pictures on the ceiling for patients to look at during a procedure.
“She was on her back and looking up. We had old pictures on the ceiling that we wanted to redo, and it was helping her relieve her anxiety and stress. And she said we should have more of these. She was really the inspiration,” said Eileen Parapar, who coordinated the project with other radiology nurses as part of a community outreach group she runs. The nurses told the young woman they would name the project after her.
Funded by COVID-relief monies, the project was part of Garfield’s Summer Arts Program, said English teacher and program coordinator, Rob Barbier. This is the second year that the school has provided the program, which includes yoga, art and other opportunities for creative enrichment as well as a academic credit-recovery program. Relief monies are set aside for two more years of summer programming till 2024. School districts nationwide received three rounds of COVID funding between the Trump and Biden administrations, called ESSER, or Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief grants. The ceiling tiles program was funded by the second grant.
“The program is directly funded through an ESSER grant as a way of providing students an opportunity to be together — to bond — we thought it was very important for social growth because they had missed some of that — and also it was a way for us to use the COVID money to teach students about being part of a larger community,” said English teacher and program coordinator Rob Barbier. In addition to personal projects, the school picked community-focused art programs for the summer. Students painted murals in the school cafeteria in the summer of 2021. The highlight of the 2022 summer program was the Hackensack Medical Center’s ceiling tiles.
“Each year we were able to pick out programs that will contribute something to the community in addition to their own artwork,” said Barbier.
Some students came to the program with a love for the arts. Others came looking for a way to escape the summer doldrums. Most of the artists picked a tile to complete, but everyone pitched in. Senior and football player Zuriel Vargas said he came to the program because art teacher Mike Garcia told him about it.
It was the kind of project that came together a little serendipitously — but eventually reminded everyone involved that they mattered. Derevyanik, the biology teacher, brought the idea to the school from her friend and the radiology team at Hackensack Medical. The Garfield school administrators lapped it up and Barbier made it the star project for the summer arts program he runs. That was a relief for art teacher Garcia, who also loved the project but was worried about safekeeping and drying the brittle two foot by two foot tiles between classes during the busy school year.
Filling the perforations on the tiles with paint while staying true to the original image was the hardest part. As for the perfect copies and sharply detailed text, the trick was to trace out a stencil of the original from a projector. Students sketched the pictures standing sideways after placing them on projectors so as not to cast a shadow.
It took two days to complete the stencils.
“We had to do it lightly too, in pencil. There was only one projector for six people, so you had to kind of wait your turn,” said senior Dafne Guachamin who worked on Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.
Vargas said he worked on touch ups and textures — he helped paint in the textures of a vest and a bubble gum pink background on a painting of Shrek.
“We all found ourselves moving along to other tiles. If one person had a specific ability on realistic stuff they would help and if one person was good at mixing colors, they would go and help,” said Victoria Begoski, a junior.
Did they make mistakes?
“Oh my god, yes! That was so frustrating,” said Guachamin. Erasing wasn’t possible, and despite the opacity of acrylics, the medium the students used, painting over wasn’t easy because a lot of time would be wasted drying. But it was worth it, because working to give something back to the community meant a great deal to all the students who participated.
“I really liked that we were doing something for the community. Not just in our town but for other people. The self-satisfaction of knowing that you're helping someone, even if it's just like, to brighten their day a little bit by using something that you already are good at,” said sophomore Emma-Lee Montalbano. She worked on Garfield and "Frozen. "
Would she do the program again?
“Definitely,” said Begoski, who painted murals in the school the previous summer. “I like the idea of giving back.”
And there was the joy of creating.
“It was fun, painting and just doing something that's creative. It’s not only giving us time to do something fun and stuff that we want to do, but it's also helping other people,” said sophomore Brianna Emanuel.
Eleventh graders Ashley Jimenez and Kaila Bradford joined because they love painting and art. Bradford so enjoyed painting murals the summer before she knew she would be part of this program.
Both students said that art was personally important to them. “Whenever I am feeling sad, or, like anxious, I start drawing. It really helps me be calm,” said Bradford. She said she draws characters from games and movies. “I think art just sends its own message outwards.”
“Personally, I paint animals, because I want to be a wildlife conservationist. I find that I always draw in nature and my artwork sends that message,” said Jimenez. It made sense, she said, that they chose happy characters and bright colors, “to help calm the children.”
Hanging out with friends was a draw for everyone on the project.
Eleventh grader Majitha Gomez was so reduced to giggles with her friends Nia Stewart and Haley Mceachem she could not provide a reason for picking the quote she painted: “Follow your dreams, they know the way.” The trio said they joined the program to do something interesting in the summer. “It was a fun thing to do to pass the time,” she said finally, with as straight a face as she could muster.
“We were painting each other as well. Towards the end, when there was lots of paint, we would just paint on each other's hands,” said Daphne.
“I just love art and being able to create,” said Vargas. He spoke about art teacher Garcia with a lot of regard. “I always talk to him after school,” he said. That’s when he learned about the program.
Helping kids feel happier by seeing art and beloved characters while going through the hardship of being a patient in a hospital meant something to Vargas, who said he had a seizure in middle school. Going to the hospital at the time was “definitely scary,” he said, making him feel he was walking in their shoes. Even though I wasn’t a “kid kid”, going back into the hospital for tests was “nerve wracking.”
The summer program was offered in the daytime and the afternoon, so that students who were taking remedial courses in the morning could work on projects later in the day. The student painters were taking academic classes and other summer offerings, but they gave the hospital tile project their time; it drew them in and gave them a purpose, said art teacher Garcia. “The core group that I was getting was leaning towards the arts. They saw the big picture, there was goal in mind. It wasn't just about finishing something,” he said.
The school received the tiles from the hospital in June and had to complete them in July. “I told them that guys – we have a deadline, we have to get this done, and they actually beat the deadline.”
“Even when the ceiling tiles were done, we still got to hang out with people that we enjoyed being around,” said Emma-Lee. “After we were done with the tiles Nadia and I went up to the second floor and we were on the walls finishing the murals.”
Garfield Summer Arts Program “Daisy Project” students:
Ashley Jimenez
Amy Jimenez
Kaila Bradford
Bridgette Taipe
Emma-Lee Montalbano
Brianna Emanuel
Victoria Begoski
Nadia Moses
Hecnery Castillo
Dafne Guachamin
Zuriel Vargas
Haley Mceachern
Majitha Gomez
Nia Stuart
Sofia Tabet
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Garfield HS NJ students paint ceiling tiles to cheer patients
