This year the National Art Honor Society at Massapequa High School created a winter coloring book for the holiday season. To give back to the school district community, these coloring books were distributed to students in Massapequa School District’s elementary schools. For community service, high school art students who are part of the National Art Honors Society (or NAHS) submitted their own line drawings as pages for the coloring book. Students were excited to get creative and bring some joy to these confusing times. 

Students were encouraged to create original line drawings based on a number of winter holidays such as Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, and Three Kings Day to create a culturally diverse and inclusive arrangement of pictures. Some students even incorporated their own original characters for their submissions. For anyone whose coloring skills demands more of a challenge, the book is organized based on skill level. This means that anyone, no matter the age, can find enjoyment in these pages. 

The coloring book was made up of 100 pages that are available in a hard copy as well as digitally for anyone to download and print at home. There were dozens of entries that have been submitted by the art students of Massapequa in hopes of their own line drawings becoming a part of the coloring book. These books were available right now in hard copy and on MSD website. The special part of this coloring book is that it will be fun for everyone. There are some coloring pages that are more difficult and are more for teens and adults and then others stick to traditional children coloring pages that are more simple. 

Since MHS has stayed open, Mr. Leone, who is the advisor for National Art Honor Society, plans to run NAHS just as it has been in the past. “We hope to hold a series of paint night fundraisers, for families & friends as well as staff,” said Mr. Leone. “We are in the beginning stages of working on the details and logistics of running these events virtually.”

 The virtual meetings have been just as exciting, as in-person meetings while NAHS is still discussing the coloring book, piecing things together, and trying to make it perfect. Given this, meetings for after school clubs have been almost impossible for a club of this size. Hoping that Covid-19 does not affect school activities for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year, NAHS hopes to be able to have in-person activities in the upcoming seasons. 

As for planning in the future for NAHS goes, events are in the works. On a daily basis “students in the executive board work on the upcoming events and plans for the main membership meetings, brainstorming, giving feedback, researching costs for events & supplies, etc,” said Mr. Leone. Hoping that these events being planned will be able to happen this school year, it should be a joyful and amazing year for the students apart of NAHS. 

As of right now, the full plan for the coloring book isn’t set in stone but the art teachers in the district are working hard to figure out how the distribution for the coloring book will be done. The coloring book was available on the Massapequa School District website before the holiday break for families to print out. The coloring book would make an amazing stocking stuffer for Massapequa’s elementary school little kids. A fun memory created by the students at MHS and letting them know that they can be a part of the NAHS when they grow up and enter the High School.