 I'm very excited and impressed with the project, Painting for a Purpose. A friend of mine, Tina Edwards, who's co-founded with Jane Ellis, this exciting rather unique new idea, which has to do with using art as a way of fundraising to help young people improve their school setting. Anything in the school that needs improvement is open for conversation as the grants are available to young people. One of the things I like the most about this project is the fact that young people are the applicants. I've never ever in all my years in education and in the media heard of a project that allows and encourages young people to use their good ideas. There's an auction every fall where painted pieces of furniture that are painted by adults and kids together and and individually as artists, formal artists who are known in Portland as well as novice artists who are inspired to paint, where people are there to buy these whimsical wonderful pieces of art to have in their home as a remembrance also an honoring of the young people who are serving their schools and communities. I'm here with Annie Martin. Annie, you are one of the successful wonderful applicants of these grants for painting for a purpose, right? Yeah. Yeah, tell me about yourself a bit. Well, I'm in sixth grade. I currently go to King Middle School. I came here to present Scott last year and applied for a grant here and made the Boulder Garden. And how did this come to be? Where did you get this idea? Well, one of the teachers in the school, she took me in for a meeting at lunch and she said, Annie, I think it'd be good for this project. Why don't you come and try it? And I said, okay, we can meet again at another lunchtime and we can talk about what we might like to do. Because you were talking about ways to improve your school? Yes. And where did the idea for a garden come from? Well, I know I I really like gardening at my house, but I also I wanted a place where people would be able to sit and enjoy and learn and maybe come out and eat their lunch and have fun ideas like that. And was there some conversation in your school about things that needed improvement or where was it specifically something you had been thinking about? Well, I was in the student council and the student council took a survey and we asked the kids, what do you like about the lunch room? What don't you like about the lunch room? What do you think is the problem that happens in the lunch room? And one of the major problems was noise. So they thought what we could do was maybe have some kids eat outside or eat in their classroom. So that way there would be less people and it would be quieter. So if there was an outdoor space that a class could come to, then they could come and eat out there. So how do you feel about this garden you're sitting in now? Mainly I'm proud because I can do something like this and have everybody else be able to enjoy it. Yeah and I see your name is right there on a plaque. Yes. What does that feel like? That feels really cool because it's like I'll be here forever. Yeah and a good idea that you had to improve things is here forever. Yeah. Does that matter to you? Yeah it does because it helps not just when I was here but everybody else who will be here too. What do you think about students applying? Do you think students have good ideas? I think they do have good ideas but sometimes they're afraid to share them. So this helps give them a little boost to share their ideas and let themselves be heard. It encourages them to be able to try things that they never tried before or not be able to try because they didn't have any resources or any idea how to do it. So do you continue to have good ideas? Usually I see other, sometimes I see other ideas and I go oh that's cool maybe we could try something like that or I could bring that up to one of the teachers and that might help the way kids behave in the classroom or something. So the fact that somebody listened to this idea and now here it is, how does that inspire you for now as you move on in the world and as you grow older and older? What does that teach you? It teaches me really not to be afraid to share my ideas and tell them to other people because they might like your ideas even if you don't think they will and they might help you make them a reality. I've always wondered about this because I spend a lot of time with kids. Imagine the whole world is listening to you right now. Let's picture the whole world is listening to you. What is it that you know about life that you would love people to understand? Probably to always keep on trying and to never give up no matter what you do because you probably will exceed eventually. I have one last one. What makes you happy? Oh what makes me happy that's a hard question. Lots of things make me happy. I mean I like school, I like my family, I like animals, I like relaxing here. You seem to be such a happy young person and do you inspire other kids to be happy because you are? I'm a really optimistic person so I think so. I can tell that you are and you are a perfect person for us to be talking with because everyone needs to understand what it is that you know and I'm happy for you. Thank you.