Fourteen foster children in India recently received a cherished gift from members of the National Art Honor Society (NAHS): portraits of themselves painted by some of the most talented artists at the high school.

The annual youth arts program is sponsored by The Memory Project. According to founder Ben Schumaker, the non-profit organization provides “handmade, heartfelt portraits as special memories to children in orphanages,” with the goal of “touching the lives of youth around the world facing many types of challenges, while opening our hearts and minds so they can touch ours in return.”

“These portraits are a reminder that there is always someone around the world who cared about them enough to make a beautiful art piece in their memory,” NAHS advisor Jennifer Beaver said.

The 14 participating NAHS members worked hard over several months to create the detailed portraits. To help guide the artists, the children sent information about themselves that they wanted conveyed in the artwork. “We got images of the children with their name, age and aspirations and then a couple of words to describe themselves,” Beaver explained.

The completed portraits were delivered to the foster children in India on March 1. Afterward, the NAHS artists at RHS received a video montage of the deliveries being made to their portrait subjects. “It’s such a great experience to see how excited the kids get and how much our portraits mean to them,” senior artist Vanessa Baron said.

The Memory Project recently notified NAHS about an new opportunity to create portraits, this time for children in Cameroon, so RHS artists may be devoting their time and talent to children from this part of West Africa in the coming months.

Editor’s Note: For more information on The Memory Project, visit https://www.memoryproject.org.