Hands That Make America: Flag Art Celebrates School’s Diversity

A group of students is giving new meaning to the term “handmade.” They are covering a 15-by-20-foot canvas with red, white and blue handprints to create a one-of-a-kind American flag.

In preparation for the upcoming International Week celebration at Garden Grove High School, students lined up Thursday to put the finishing touches on Old Glory. Bright blue paint was rolled onto students’ hands, and one by one they were directed to a vacant section of the banner.

Red stripes had been applied earlier in the week, and white stars will be added before the flag is flown during next week’s celebration, sponsored by the student group Argos United.

The goal is to have each of Garden Grove High School’s 1,800 students apply his or her handprint to the flag, with Argos United’s 80 student members finishing off the stars.

Sandy Sullivan, an English teacher and Argos United sponsor, said the colorful canvas is intended to celebrate the cultural diversity of Garden Grove High. The school’s students speak 27 languages, she said, among them Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, Spanish and Vietnamese.

“This high school has undergone many changes over the years, but it is the students who have led the way toward the harmony here now,” Sullivan said.

Senior Derek Frenzel, 17, who has participated in four previous International Weeks, said painting Old Glory is special because “this is something we can all participate in.”

Sophomore Andrea Johnson, 15, declared the flag project “pretty cool” because every student can be involved. “It’s a symbol of all the different nationalities,” she said.

Karla Spence, 15, who volunteered to help direct the painting, said the exercise has drawn in students who might otherwise not have been involved. As a result, she said, many of them now “understand the whole point of International Week.”

The work has also been an education for her. “I didn’t know how many kids there were in this school until I came out and put all their hands on this thing,” she said.