Art project turns into valuable lesson learned of inclusion and awareness

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. (FOX 10) - Ms. Bloomston's fifth-grade art class at Country Day School thought they were doing something small while working on an art project.

The students noticed there was only one shade to use for skin tones.

"It wasn't really fair to everyone because no one really looks the same, everyone's just a little bit different and everyone's unique in their own way," fifth-grader Mayve Brown said.

So, they took action to spark a change.

"I said we all noticed this glaze color and we had a conversation about it and I said 'hey, we can write them a letter,' but they followed up with me the next week," Carrie Bloomston said. "They came to me and said 'Ms. Bloomstom, what about that letter?' So if they hadn't picked up that thread, it would've been dropped and none of this would've happened."

"We didn't like it, so we wanted to write a letter to the company who made it saying, 'this isn't fair because everybody is not just one color,'" fifth-grader Jayden Caldwell said.

That major company was Mayco Coloramics and the letter the class wrote and addressed to the company's CEO earned a surprising response in return yesterday.

"We all started getting excited that the Mayco company was getting back to us," fifth-grader Christina Keller said. "She read us the letter and we all were really excited that we got the first bottle ever that had been changed to a different name."

The class received the very first bottle of the company's new color "Cashew Later," as a thank you for a valuable lesson learned, initiating change and being brave enough to let their voices be heard.

"Even though it's a small change, just a name on a bottle, I think the mark that it will make on their lives is the profound aspect," Bloomston said.