This year, the Holiday Tree that graces the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building is from Virginia. And it needed to be decorated.
Dupont Paints donated 2,000 gallon-sized paint lids to the Fairfax County Elementary Schools. Forty-five fifth-graders from Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School signed up for the project at their school. Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School was one of 50 schools in Fairfax County to participate in the project.
Each student found a design that symbolized Virginia. The designs were transferred to paper, taped to the surface of the paint-can lid, and then the lids were perforated with a nail and a hammer, outlining the symbols.
Seven fifth-graders attended the cold, rainy evening of the Capitol Holiday Tree Lighting on Dec. 9. Lourdes Baltazar, Derrick Everett, Marjorie Gomez, Joel Callejas, Kadejah McCoy, Rosaura Morilla and Estefany Torres weathered the cold rain and watched the opening celebration of the Capitol Tree Lighting and enjoyed taking pictures with the Virginia tree. Three teachers chaperoned the students via Metro to D.C., Ashley Eaton, Francois Casablanca and art teacher Alisha Ritualo.