Her love of art began during her own stay at the Home between 1974 and 1978. Sheila remembers she and other residents were always given art projects and time to work on them.

“Art was encouraged. I won my first art competition here at the Home, and I was awarded 10 silver dollars by Mr. DeVille. I’ll never forget it. In fact, I still have them to this day!”

Art is Shelia’s talent and passion. She works with 3 or 4 youth at a time. Each week, Shelia volunteers an hour to an a hour and a half after her work day ends at 5:00. She is excited to do this so she can, “give back some of what I was given.”

In our future publications we will feature artwork our youth have created as well as some of Shelia’s works. Their current art project is titled, Variations of the Fleur-de-Lis.

Sheila reports, “The youth love it! They love working on the projects and are so proud of themselves.”

Look for artwork from Sheila and our youth in future issues of Pathways.