No tasks were too big or small for BHS seniors to 'make a difference' Friday

Painting ceiling tiles wouldn’t typically seem like a fun thing to do, but for a group of Batavia High School seniors, they didn’t mind it doing it all morning Friday, they said.

Full disclosure: these weren’t just any ceiling tiles; they were going to replace some that had gotten damaged in the GO Art! kitchen, and since they didn’t match the other ones already in there, it was decided that they could look different. 

And that’s when the fun began.

“We’re painting ceiling tiles for the kitchen in a monster theme,”  student Prudence Favaloro said, showing the piece that she and fellow senior Joshua Budzinack had created. “I really like doing art; it’s one of my biggest passions. I want to minor in art in college.”

The 17-year-old and 13 of her peers chose GO ART! as the place they wanted to go to for Make A Difference Day. In its 24th year, this is a day when the Batavia seniors spend time earning community service hours while also helping out a local nonprofit organization with tasks, such as gardening, cleaning, office work, and various other types of odd jobs.

Kids visited All Babies Cherished, ARC, Batavia Cemeteries, Batavia Community Garden, Batavia Peace Garden, Crossroads House, First United Methodist Church, Genesee Cancer Assistance, Genesee County Park, Genesee County Youth Bureau, Habitat for Humanity, Holland Land Office Museum, Mercy Flight, The Manor House and YMCA.

Given the nature of GO Art!, jobs have been a bit more creative, but helpful all the same, Executive Director Gregory Hallock said.

“They have been coming every year since I've been here. And for us, it’s a godsend. Because we get, what is it? This is Make a Difference Day, and then we have the United Way's Day of Caring. And so those are two times a year where we really try to do some major projects, because all the workers, all my staff have 24/7 jobs … and this gives us a chance to catch up on a lot of stuff, and the kids like painting,” Hallock said while standing in the kitchen at the Bank and East Main Street site. 

“They had been doing this room now since 2021, I think, so they've been painting this room and adding, they were doing the ceiling tiles for today. Some kids come here because they like to do art, and we're an art center. But that's not usually the projects we have, we do more of the arts administration. So that's where we decided one year to let them have at this kitchen. So they've been doing monsters for years.”

There were other chores, including more utilitarian painting of walls to be able to mount paintings on later and building tabletops, volunteer Ed Griffin said.  He led a group of four kids with those tasks up in the attic. 

Everyone arrived at 9 a.m. ready for the day, and time seemed to go very quickly, Favaloro said. 

“It seems we were just getting started, and the next thing you knew, it was 11, and then it was 12:30, where did that time go?” she said. “I enjoyed it.”

There were ceiling tiles drying on the gallery room stage, filled with cartoon monster images and bright colors, while the students and art teachers Nikki Greenbaum and Mandi Antonucci took a lunch break. 

Meanwhile, Hallock pointed around the kitchen to prior handiwork kids had done, demonstrating how each year’s contribution has incrementally carved out a culinary art gallery.

“It's incredible,” he said. “We depend on this. We look forward to this every year to get stuff done.” 

Each site had one or more chaperones to supervise, and work with the students, said Lisa Robinson, who accompanied another group of 14 to the state School for the Blind.

Student Madison Hughes chose the school to visit because she “just wanted to see some different people” and admittedly, wasn’t in the mood for any yard work. Students there were placed in classrooms and offices to either be directly with the school’s students or staff in need of office assistance.

It’s the second year for Robinson to go to the Richmond Avenue site, she said.

“I think from the kids’ perspective, it's great for them to see other opportunities and things that are going on within Batavia that they might not have had the opportunity to do before,” she said. “And then as far as coming here, I think it's great for the students that are here as well as our students. They have some interaction and they get to see how the school operates and just a different aspect of what that looks like.”