Painted Hearts: Fremd Student Brings Art to Seniors

Art has been a hobby and outlet for Fremd High School student Anika Dalvi for most of her life. She says she has found it to provide a sense of peace and happiness.

At the end of her freshman year she had an idea for bringing that same sense of peace to members of her community.

“I thought, ‘Why can’t I bring this to my community,’” Dalvi said. “At nursing homes, it seems there weren’t a lot of opportunities for different kinds of activities, so I thought I could bring art to them to allow them to do something constructive with their hands.”

That idea led to Dalvi creating what she has called the Painted Hearts. As part of this project, she creates drawings which she then takes to area nursing homes. She then sits with the residents and helps them paint and color in these drawings.

Over the past year, Dalvi has worked with five area nursing homes and said she gets to each one around once a month, though she would like to increase that.

“I would like to be more consistent with getting to the different areas,” she said. “Right now I am getting to each place once a month, but I want to try to get there closer to once a week.”

In order to reach that goal, Dalvi says she wants to encourage more students to join her project. On her most recent visit to ALIYA, Dalvi was joined by her friend and fellow FHS student Lana Dandekar. When she heard about Dalvi’s project, Dandekar said she had to join.

“I love art, and I want to give more opportunities for people to make it,” Dandekar said. “When I heard Anika had this great plan with Painted Hearts, I felt I had to help her out with it.”

One of the homes that Dalvi has partnered with in this project is ALIYA of Palatine. Activities Director Kristie Rivera said they were excited when Dalvi reached out to them with her idea.

“We were so excited to have Anika come to our facility with her project,” Rivera said. “To have a young adult share her joy and talents in art with our residents was a breath of fresh air.

Dalvi has seen that the seniors she works with have been very happy with the project.

“I think they have a lot of fun when they do the projects,” she said. “I’m really happy to see that, at the end of the day, when they finish their projects, they give them to family members or hang them in their rooms.”

Rivera said that, no matter what the individual resident’s ability may be, she has seen that they are happy participating in the project.

“Even if they don’t do it exactly perfectly, each resident feels like they have created a masterpiece,” Rivera said. “There is joy in the relaxing atmosphere.”

During each visit, Dalvi sits with all of the participants helping them with their projects and offering them ideas and encouragement. Rivera said the residents look forward to her visits.

“Anika is kind, supportive, and encouraging to others,” Rivera said.

Dalvi said that the happiness of others is what she enjoys the most about her project.

“My favorite part of all of this is seeing people have fun,” she said. “Some people may have never painted in their lives while others haven’t painted in a long time. For a lot of people, this really brightens their day and seeing that makes me happy.

To learn more about Painted Hearts, visit their website or follow them on Instagram.