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Havre High student paints windows for Northern Montana Care Center residents

Amber Coleman, 16, soon to be a junior at Havre High School brightened the days of residents and their families at the Northern Montana Care Center this summer by painting the windows of her grandmother's room along with windows of many others living there.

Coleman said she originally got the idea to paint her grandmother's windows from her mother and things snowballed from there. Her mother's co-worker asked if Coleman could paint her father's window, as he was a resident too. Later the families of other residents saw her work and requested that she paint the windows of their loves ones as well.

"I've always liked to paint, so I painted my grandma's window and it just kind of progressed into painting other resident's windows," Coleman said.

Coleman said she had to test colors to see what colors would work best, because she found that many would become difficult to see when the sun was directly behind them.

"We kind of had to experiment on our own windows, because some colors through the glare and sunlight just look clear," she said.

She also tried to tailor her paintings to the individuals living at the care center, painting flowers and wheat for her grandmother and another resident named Ruth, as they both grew up on farms, and motorcycles for her mother's co-worker's father who had a passion for them.

She said most of these paintings took between 30 minutes and an hour to do. Once she determined the colors she could use, and the responses she got were encouraging.

"I got a lot of happiness from all the families," Coleman said. "And some of the resident's there, the ones who knew what was going on, were really happy, to. One of the family members knew how much I loved painting and she invited me to a watercolor class as a thank you."

Coleman said she's learned a lot from the class and its teacher since.

She said she plans to continue studying art after high school and take as many classes as she can in college, but the pandemic has proved to be something of a curveball for her when it comes to education.

"It's hard to adapt to what's happened," she said.

Coleman said the reactions of the care center residents, at least those who are capable of reacting, have stuck with her since she finished her work on their windows.

"The reactions I got from some of the residents were really nice," she said, "I still think about that now, but their smiles while I was painting the windows, that's what it's all about, seeing their happiness."

 

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