Tree of Love project at Magee-Womens Hospital features work of young artists
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Shaivy Shrivastava speaks about one of the cards she created for the Tree of Love.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Sasthra Narayan secures her Tree of Love card in place.
Chris Vitsas welcomes the Tree of Love project to Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Students attending the Tree of Love welcoming event are, from left, Vedha Gandhi, Sana Motlakunta, Kavya Yuvaraj, Shaivy Shrivastava, Oviya Yuvaraj and Sasthra Narayan.
Yuvaraj Muthu chronicles the proceedings at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital as his wife, Sevla Priya, watches.
From left are Oviya and Kavya Yuvaraj, Selva Priya's daughters, attending the Tree of Love welcoming at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.
Tree of Love base
Students chose their own themes and messages for Tree of Love cards.
Cards created by young artists bearing positive messages arrived for the holidays to much acclaim at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.
“I was blown away by how beautiful they are and how impactful the sayings actually are,” said Chris Vitsas, the hospital’s senior director of hospitality and management, in welcoming the art students and their teacher.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Students chose their own themes and messages for Tree of Love cards.
The cards are hanging on two Trees of Love, one just outside the cafeteria and another in a special area for hospital staff members.
“This is so gratifying. It’s so impactful on another life,” Vistas said. “This act of kindness that these folks have created will touch many, many, many more people.”
On the day of the trees’ placement at the hospital, art student Shaivy Shrivastava, 9, shared her perspective.
“I had fun making these cards because I knew it would brighten somebody’s day,” she said. “I really like sharing the joy with others and seeing their emotions.”
The students, ages 4 to 16, worked on the cards at the South Fayette Township studio of their teacher, Selva Priya, an Emerging Artist Scholarship recipient from the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. She initiates projects throughout the year with the shared theme of spreading kindness.
For the Tree of Love project, her hope is for people to take a card to share with someone, “and then create their own card, if they want, and attach it to the tree.”
Although the trees arrived at the hospital a couple of weeks before Christmas, the plan is to keep them in place.
“I think this is an act of compassion that’s going to make a difference in somebody’s life,” Vitases. “It’s one thing to care for patients. It’s another thing to care about patients. And I think that this brings us back to the reason why we’re here.”
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Selva Priya discusses the project in front of the Tree of Love stationed near the first-floor cafeteria at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital.