Right before Thanksgiving Break, Beasley students had the joy of a virtual visit for a Lower School assembly from one of their favorite guest artists, Mark Borella, The Seeds of Happiness Guy! Mr. Borella has been spreading happiness at MICDS for the past couple of years. He visited the school in 2019 and even inspired students from afar last spring. This November, he shared a pre-recorded video for our Beasley assembly which focused on gratitude and joy. There couldn’t have been a better time or topic for Mr. Borella to virtually visit our Lower Schoolers again!
For the video, Visual Art Specialist Sarah Garner visited Mr. Borella at his art studio in Kirkwood in advance. She filmed glimpses of some of his artwork, he gave a tour of his studio, and he answered questions that Beasley students recorded for him in advance—all with a smile on his face. Check out the video below!
Students got to see the shipping room, the pottery studio that Borella created for his former art teacher, the kilns which hold 4,000-6,000 smiles, and his drawing, painting, sculpting, and woodshop areas. He talked about how his company would send 3,200 pounds of clay to Canterbury Enterprises which is a company that “provides meaningful work for people with disabilities.” There, the clay is molded into the small ball shapes that soon become the smiling seeds of happiness that Mark Borella is known for. Once the clay balls are delivered back to the studio, Mr. Borella creates the eyes and smiles with chopsticks. Then the smiles dry, are painted, glazed three times, and inspected. Then, they are shipped out all around the world or sold in his studio.
Lower Schoolers then asked Mr. Borella some wonderful questions! They asked about what brings him joy (his family and making other people happy), how they can share kindness and gratitude (one idea was to draw a smiley face on a post-it note and place it over someone’s door or at their home), and about what he’s grateful for (his health and kind people). He shared that looking for kind people is like seeing the light that shines all the way through to a forest’s floor. Mr. Borella encouraged students to always spread their light and be someone else’s happiness. He also was asked about the challenges brought by COVID-19; he’s had to, unfortunately, let a lot of his employees go, but he’s also been more creative. Students learned that the seeds of happiness are important to him because they’re an avenue for people to be kind to one another. They’re a great way to think of others.
Lastly, Mr. Borella and Ms. Garner demonstrated how to paint a seed of happiness, how to sculpt a snowman, and how to create clay hearts. Following the presentation, students got to sculpt and paint their own clay hearts in addition to filling out thank you tags.
What a lovely and joy-filled virtual visit! Thank you, Mr. Borella, for taking the time to spread a little more happiness, love, and gratitude to our Beasley students!
