Ten fifth grade students at Crestwood Elementary School learned on Dec. 19 that their self-portraits created in art class earlier this year were requested by the White House to trim the presidential trees this holiday season.
This all came to be thanks to Crestwood’s physical education teacher, Darrion Cockrell. Cockrell, known as “Mr. DC” to his students, was awarded the 2021 Missouri Teacher of the Year, and because of this, was invited this year along with state teachers of the year from across the country to the White House to be a volunteer decorator. In total, more than 300 volunteers helped bring this year’s theme, “A Season of Peace and Light” to life.
“I had the opportunity to represent Crestwood Elementary School and the Lindbergh School District at the White House during Thanksgiving. It was a really, really fun experience. It was something that I will forever remember. I’m a huge history guy, so just being in the White House, taking in all the history that’s there, but also knowing that I’m there because I’m an educator meant so much more to me than anything,” Cockrell said. “Being able to represent teachers all over the country and our school just means so much to me.”
While at the White House, Cockrell met the First Lady, “a lot of Secret Service guys” and Mika and Brian Kleinschmidt of HGTV’s “White House Christmas.” He also obviously spent a lot of time decorating, which he admitted was harder than it looked.
“I was in charge of putting the doves together. Then we had to hang them on the ceiling of the White House,” Cockrell said. “I had to wrap fake presents and I also had to put bows on the fake presents. That was the hardest part for me, I messed up a lot. Don’t tell the White House – they’re probably trying to figure out who wasted all the bows. It was me because it was so hard and they wanted it to be perfect, literally.”
He also “fluffed” Christmas trees and put up lights and wreaths.
Following Cockrell’s visit, the White House reached out requesting student self-portrait ornaments from Crestwood Elementary to be used in the holiday decor. A very select number of students from around the county were asked the same.
Upon receiving the news, Cockrell and Crestwood Elementary School art teacher Christopher Burke decided that it was only right to bestow the honor on the school’s fifth graders.
“I think this is a cool last hurrah for them,” Cockrell said. “This year has been so crazy for them with all the construction going on. They don’t really have a playground, they’re going to lose the gym here shortly. There’s so many chaotic things going on. I think this is a cool opportunity to kind of represent them and show them that through all the madness, we have something beautiful that we want to share with the world and the White House.”
Though the turnaround time was quick between the request for the ornaments and sending them out, all turned out well due to Burke’s idea to repurpose self-portraits created by the students earlier in the school year. The self-portraits were made after students looked in the mirror and discussed proportions and skin tone. They then decorated the background with patterns and gold leaf.
To make their ornaments, students were given copies of their self-portraits and told to cut them into a circle to fit in the designated space.
The completed ornaments were used to decorate trees in the State Dining Room during the holiday season.
“It’s pretty great,” Burke said of his students’ artwork being displayed in the White House. “I see the amazing stuff that the kids do every single day, so being able to present it to the outside world feels really good. To have them actually get validated from outside sources (and) recognized outside of just me saying ‘that’s amazing’ is a really, really good feeling.”
