Rocking chairs for tiny patients

Art and agriculture students at Dan River High School teamed up to make and paint seven small rocking chairs for children to use while being treated at Sovah Health hospital in Danville.

The chairs were delivered Monday, said Ag teacher Casey Kenealy, who along with fellow ag teacher, Whitney Lindsey, and art teacher, Dan Franklin, helped spearhead the project.

"We thought we'd do something to brighten their time there," said Kenealy of the young patients who would use them.

The ag students cut and sanded the wood, assembled the chairs and gave them a base coat of white paint, said Kenealy, adding that the wood used was donated some time ago. 

The chairs were then taken to the art department where the students painted the chairs in bright colors and added favorite cartoon characters, such as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.

Kenealy said the idea for the chairs came from the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, which had cut the first pattern used.

It was part of the ag and art students' spring community project. In all, about 20-30 ag and art students participated and the project took about three weeks to complete, said Kenealy.