By Carlos Torres
Have you ever gone to the courtyard during family group or on your own time and just sat on that colorful turtle? You ever think to yourself like where did this huge turtle come from? I decided to do some investigating and it wasn’t easy. I had to go through a lot of research to get the history of this turtle and it wasn’t easy. First, I decided to talk to any teachers who have been at East for a long time; I estimated maybe around 20 years back. I asked my family group carents and they didn't have an answer so I decided to ask my counselor because she's been here for quite some time. Mrs. Burnell didn't have an answer and she directed me to talk to Mrs. Gilbert. After I asked her, she told me that it was created by a program called Art Peace. So I went onto the website and found out information about everyone in the program and which teachers taught what but I never found anything about the turtle. Shortly after I decided to email the creator of the program and no luck. So I continued to do research on her and read articles about her. Still no luck and finally one of the links on google was her Facebook profile. So I friended her and messaged her and she messaged back and later we spoke on the phone and she told me everything about the turtle. Kristin Rapp is the founder of Art Peace and she explained that Art Peace was a non-profit organization to help kids stay out of the streets and to help them with their art and school work. Art Peace was a special arts-integrated program her at East for 7th and 8th graders in 2008- 2009. Students would work on an art project that showed what they were learning in class. The turtle was part of an Iroquois creation myth that students studied in English class with Mrs. Conroy (then Miss Vaccaro). If you look closely at the turtle, you’ll see the myth depicted on its colorful shell. The turtle started off as an exhibition project for the first marking period. When students finished it, it was put in the courtyard and later it was became the Art Peace mascot/logo. Little pieces of East High history are all around the school. With a little research and curiosity, you can find out all sorts of things that others don’t bother questioning.
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