Arcadia School in Olympia Fields Takes First Place Arts Contest

When traditional field trips were put on hold during the pandemic, Matteson School District 162 improvised for Halloween by bringing the field to the students, complete with their own pumpkin patches – complemented by curriculum skill building, learning activities and games.

Seizing the Christmas season, Arcadia School of Olympia Fields brought Christmas “in house” in the form of a tree for students to decorate.

“We wanted something inside the school the children could be proud of everyday,” said Stephanie Healy, principal at Arcadia.

Under the guidance of Arcadia School art teacher Jori Bell-Jackson, the administration took the initiative even further by entering the children’s efforts into the first-ever holiday “Artist in You” contest hosted by the local Tall Grass Arts Association in Park Forest, Illinois.

The association’s mission is in harmony with the vision of arts in education ascribed to by Dr. Blondean Y. Davis, Superintendent of Matteson School District 162.

The Tall Grass Arts Association mission: “To promote public education and appreciation of the arts; to encourage artists; and to support high quality art through exhibitions, sales, classes and special programs available to the public of all ages.”

“Bringing the world to our children is our calling as educators,” said Dr. Davis. “Much like our efforts for Halloween, involving the children in Christmas through creative tasks as well as a day of fun, learning and memories has lasting impact.”

The efforts in decorating a tree resulted in the First Place award for Arcadia School in the “Interior Christmas Tree” category.

“Ms. Bell-Jackson chose a different avenue by entering the children’s work in the ‘Artist In You’ contest,” said Healy. “The kids had so much fun. They even got to vote for their favorites.”

Illustrating further for the students how technology and creativity mesh in today’s world, Bell-Jackson created the Arcadia Tree Blog with on-going entries such as:

Arcadia’s elves had been hard at work decorating the halls, walls and trees at Arcadia School. We were so proud of all of our artwork that we decided to enter one of our trees into the Tall Grass Arts Association’s “Holiday Artist in You” Photo Contest.

The Arcadia Christmas Tree greeted the students and parents every morning. It is adorned with red and white ornaments. It has a knit winter hat for its tree topper and elf legs sticking out the middle of the tree. It makes you believe that an elf could be buried inside the branches working on the tree. There is another set of elf legs and feet at the bottom of the tree’s skirt. It’s a tree that allows us all to imagine the fun of decorating for the holidays.

“We won the interior tree contest because of our Arcadia family and friends,” wrote Bell-Jackson. “They believed that the ARTcadia Bears deserved to be winners and we did it!”