PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Wintergreen Arts Center’s creative children are at it again bettering the community, and this time they’re helping shelter animals find homes.
With some photos of local shelter animals as reference, students of the art center chose their favorite four-legged friend and painted the portraits of each potential pet to spread awareness of the many adoptable dogs and cats in Aroostook County shelters.
Wintergreen Art Center student Sabine Wells-Puckett, 8, of Presque Isle showing off her pet portrait outside of Allegro Cafe on Main Street.
(Joshua Archer)
“This was just another idea where we could make a big impact in the community,” said Wintergreen instructor Kara Addington, who also recently worked with youngsters on Wintergreen’s Presque Isle Community Garden fence painting project. “We want to help pets find homes and bring awareness to the fact that there are a lot of pets in our local shelters that need homes.”
Over 20 students from first grade through 9th participated in the summer pet portrait project, including some from the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Upward Bound program.
Sabine Wells-Puckett, 8, of Presque Isle chose to paint a cat’s portrait.
“Pets deserve a good home because they don’t want to be bored at an animal shelter,” Wells-Puckett said. “It felt really good to help — one time I went (to a shelter) and I gave them $20.”
MacKencie McLaughlin, 9, of Mapleton chose Muffin, a cat that reminded her of her own feline.
“I chose a tiger cat because I used to have one and I thought she looked really cute,” McLaughlin said.
Wintergreen Art Center students have their pet portraits all around town at local businesses to help bring awareness for shelter pets looking for a good home.
(Joshua Archer)
Going above and beyond, Mia Brewer, 10, of Presque Isle chose to paint two kittens, who, during the process of the project, were adopted.
“Helping out the shelter felt good,” Brewer said.
Along with each painting is a description of the cat or dog from Presque Isle’s Central Aroostook Humane Society or Halfway Home Pet Rescue in Caribou letting folks know if he or she is good with kids and other pets and where to go to adopt. The paintings are displayed at Wintergreen as well as at various businesses around town including Allegro, HardScrabble Solutions, Second Chances Thrifts and Boutique, Katahdin Trust Company and Portland Glass.
