Art With a Mission at Heritage Christian Academy

A weekly student art club at in Maple Grove has quickly grown into a way for students to contribute to a mission to help others.

“To begin with, it [art club] was based on student feedback as to what they wanted to work on,” Heritage Christian Academy art teacher Cindy Dreblow said, indicating most of the projects students made were for themselves and some outreach efforts woven in occasionally.

But once Dreblow and Art 2 Heart Founder Lori Westling connected in 2009, the school’s art club started to evolve into a giving effort.

“One thing led to another,” Westling said. The duo came up with the idea for Art 2 Heart in Hamel to sell the club's art projects. In turn, the funds raised would be given to classmates to defer the cost of a yearly mission trip taken by several of the Heritage Christian Academy high school students.

Art 2 Heart is a nonprofit gift shop and gathering place in Hamel. Handmade products are sold, with the profits given to support Christian ministry efforts worldwide.

“Now it's called Art 2 Heart Club, which is neat to see how it is grown at the school and our relationship with the school has grown so much stronger,” Westling said. “We’re continuing to look for different projects for the kids to make to sell in the shop. We report back how the sales are going and how much they’ve raised.”

As the art ideas have grown over the years, so have the projects and outreach opportunities at Heritage Christian Academy.

At the beginning of this school year, another project was added onto the list of those made to help with mission trip costs.

Staff sent a call out to families at the school to donate gently used sweatshirts to make into pillows and sweatshirt bags—resulting in Dreblow collecting more than 20 sweatshirts. Although staff, parents, and volunteers are making the first round of pillows and bags, Dreblow says the project will probably be rolled into the Art 2 Heart Club as well.  

“The theme running throughout all of this is ‘How can we use our God given creativity to reach out into the world?” Westling said. “It’s fun to be able to encourage, and show, young people that they can make a difference. It’s amazing to see.”

“I think students need that idea out there that they can help support others in some way,” Dreblow said of the outreach initiatives. “I’m hoping that it is getting them thinking not only about their day, but others as well.”

More information on Art 2 Heart can be found on the organization’s website.