BETHEL — Students in Telstar Middle School’s advanced art class held an ArtReach Jamboree on Thursday evening, inviting dozens of local musicians to play classic songs in the auditorium while students held an art sale throughout the rest of the school.

The art sale consisted of drawings, paintings and three-dimensional projects created by the students. The three-dimensional projects included hand-crafted hats, pottery and food. All of the proceeds made from the art sale will go toward benefiting the Oxford County Meals on Wheels program.

Melissa Prescott, a visual-arts teacher at Telstar Middle School who is responsible for organizing the ArtReach night, said that every year, the students in her advanced art class are responsible for choosing a service-learning project to work on throughout the year. In previous years, Telstar’s ArtReach program focused on helping the Harvest Hills Animal Shelter, cancer awareness and prevention and the Bethel Trails Committee.

“The students choose, brainstorm, debate the ideas and settle on one,” Prescott said. “This year, the students voted to do something to benefit the elderly.”

Prescott explained how her students, upon choosing to help senior citizens in the area, began working on “oral history interviews and related visual-art projects,” as well as “investigating issues important to seniors” and “working with them on several creative collaborations.”

One of the creative collaborations between the advanced art students and the seniors included having the students interview the seniors and create a work of art based on the information they received.

Prescott said that she and her students decided to do things differently this year.

“Every year, we have the art sale and also do a live art auction,” Prescott said. “This year, I wanted to shake things up. Instead of doing a live art auction, I wanted to bring in local musical groups to play songs from the older generation. After all, this year’s theme is helping the elderly.”

Several local bands turned up for the ArtReach Jamboree, including Late 4 Assembly, Jewel Clark, Donnie Katlin, Denny Breau and the TMS staff ensemble.

The TMS staff ensemble consisted of Prescott, Kevin O’Reilly, Michael Prescott and Russ Murley. They played classic music, including a 1970s song by Don Williams, but students cheered the loudest after Melissa Prescott, with the aid of her students, danced to the popular track “Gangnam Style” by Psy.

Other groups set up booths throughout the school, all benefiting the elderly in some way. The Bethel LEGO League worked on its own service-learning project to help the elderly revolving around local farming and food.

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