Art Club ‘Decks The Halls’ of CHS

​By: Anna Million, Contributing Writer

Miss Alexis Willingham, CHS art teacher, hosted the 2021 Deck the Halls event as a fundraiser for the art department.

Deck the Halls is a silent auction and art show that doubles as a bake sale. Around eighteen pieces of artwork were created and donated by Centralia High School students. 

The students competed against each other to see who created the top pieces of art. For this, three judges were selected: Katherine Butrum, Gina Gowin and Tyler Forsee. When asked why these judges specifically were chosen, Willingham stated, “I wanted to try and choose individuals that have some type of art background.”

Butrum is the current art teacher for kindergarten through fifth grade, Gowin is the middle school librarian who has a Master's in Art Education and and Forsee teaches physical education at the high school, but he enjoys looking at the students’ artworks.

Willingham hopes Deck the Halls will become an annual event so she can, “give students the opportunity to show their artwork, gain leadership through planning the event, have access to more art materials and the opportunity to support student travel so they have experiences that last a lifetime.”

This year, Deck the Halls was held, not only to support the art department, but to help fund students going on the High School trip to Europe at the end of the year. The donations from the bake sale will be utilized for participants going on the Europe trip. The money made from the sale of artwork will be going towards Art Club or the Europe Trip, depending on what the artist decides.