Madison Heights

More than 300 cardboard cutouts show students as leaders

By Andy Kozlowski
C & G Staff Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Deb Jacques Aspiring fourth-grade artist Santi Myers stands next to his depiction of himself as a martial artist. Photo by Deb Jacques Aspiring fourth-grade artist Santi Myers stands next to his depiction of himself as a martial artist.

MADISON HEIGHTS — Edmonson Elementary is feeling packed these days.

Every student at the school — and soon enough the preschoolers, faculty and staff — has a cardboard clone to call their own.

They line every hall at Edmonson Elementary, every wall in the cafeteria and gymnasium, always smiling, day and night. They surprise visitors in the lobby, a gaggle of them right by the main doors. Sometimes, they even startle the school’s own staff.

“In the morning, when you come to school, you see the outline of the figures in the hallway window, from the driveway,” said Denise Doane, a satellite cook. “It makes you jump, just for a minute, and then you realize what it is. I’m not the only one who’s expressed that — others have said the same thing.”

Jim Martz, day maintenance, joked it can be spooky.

“This building is over 30 years old, and it creaks and moves and makes noises at 5:30 in the morning,” he said with a laugh.

Once the lights are on, though, any spookiness disappears. It’s like stumbling upon a cutesy version of the Chinese emperor’s Terracotta Army. There are no stoic expressions or implements of war, though — only friendly smiles and outreached hands.

There are around 310 life-size cutouts, one for each student in kindergarten through fifth-grade. Each is traced from the student’s body, then cut out by art teacher Craig Hinshaw and painted in bright, bold colors by the kids.

Wood reinforces the back of each piece, so they can lean against the walls without curling from humidity. There’s nothing rigid about the cutouts, though; they’re dynamically posed and full of life.

“There are some that are so expressive that you feel the kid’s personality comes through,” said Carol Hinshaw, the art teacher’s wife. She watched as her husband toiled away in the garage, cutting away with an X-Acto knife, cardboard bodies everywhere. “It was a labor of love for him,” she said.

Each cutout depicts the student as a leader. For some, it’s how they see themselves as a leader now; a couple of students are wearing bright yellow safety vests, for example, while others are dressed in normal clothes and explain, in writing prompts pinned to the back, how they exhibit leadership qualities in their everyday life.

For others, it’s how they see themselves as a leader in the future. One student is an astronaut, for example; another is a football player. One appears to be breakdancing, spinning on his head, while another is lifting weights. There are even a few students aspiring to be ninja warriors.

Santi Myers, fourth-grader, depicted himself in a karate uniform, complete with tapering black belt, arms raised high and one leg up in the crane position.

“He inspired me to be an artist,” Myers said of Hinshaw. “I had him for an art teacher when I was in kindergarten, and he showed me a lot about painting and drawing.”

At the Jan. 10 Lamphere board meeting, in Edmonson’s gymnasium, it was revealed that the students had also reproduced the entire Lamphere Board of Education. The curtains drew back slowly and the crowd went wild seeing the cutouts.

“I was one of the ones behind the board member (cutouts), moving them around,” said Lexi Gross, fourth-grader. “They were laughing pretty hard.”

The project, said Principal Sharon Stephens, is as meaningful as it is fun. Students have been studying the seven habits of leadership, as inspired by Stephen R. Covey, bestselling author of “The Leader in Me” and “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

These habits include being proactive and doing the right thing even when no one is watching; planning ahead; prioritizing; thinking win-win so everyone benefits; listening before you talk; cooperating with others; and living in balance, with proper eating, exercise and so on.

“As a school, we have a ton of work ahead of us, but they’re really at a perfect age to teach them these leadership principles, which they will carry through all of life, through high school and college and beyond,” Stephens said.

When she suggested the cutout project to Hinshaw, inspired by a picture she saw in “The Leader in Me,” she said he was immediately on board with the idea, asking, “Why don’t we do the whole school,” without even seeing the picture.

“He just took this vision, and he made it an actual realization,” Stephens said.

She commended Hinshaw for his creativity, like the time he brought a live horse to Hiller Elementary to model for the students, or the time he transformed a barren lot at Lessenger Elementary into a lush koi garden with a rabbit the whole school takes care of.

“Craig walks into a classroom, and within seconds, he gets the kids eating out of the palm of his hands, if you would,” Stephens said. “He’s like a hero. He can bring out the artistic talent in each of the kids.”

Hinshaw said it was a moving experience for him.

“As I watched over 300 children draw and paint leadership and what most of them envisioned becoming someday, it touched me, and I realized the great responsibility us educators have to do nothing, to not squelch their excitement for life,” Hinshaw said. “I kind of liken it to the Hippocratic Oath, to do no harm.”

He added that it wasn’t until the board meeting that he saw all the figures lined up and realized the incredible amount of work he had put into it.

“Projects like this are not work to me,” Hinshaw said. “I’m honored to help these children bring them to fruition.”

But nothing prepared him for when he met his own cardboard likeness, traced from one of the tallest kids in the school, with the legs extended to adult proportions. The cardboard Hinshaw even had paint-speckled pants.

“The board meeting brought tears to my eyes,” he said. “They had done one of me, and I had actually always wanted one done of me. I just never had time to ask.”

Edmonson Elementary is located at 621 E. Katherine in Madison Heights, and can be reached at (248) 547-5342.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Andy Kozlowski at akozlowski@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1104.