Earlier this year, students Alea Amadei, Katsu Tanaka and Delancey Petersen spent a total of 75 hours working on decorations for McMinnville, Oregon's Annual Mayor's Charity Ball. The students spent several weeks painting murals and creating decorations that they then helped display throughout the Community Center, where the event was held.

Delancey Petersen had this to say about her experiences:

"I started the Mayor's Ball project two weeks ago, and the event itself was February 3rd. This project was basically helping out on decorations for the Mayor's Charity Ball which is held at the Community Center in Mc Minnville.

"There were many projects that we worked on both at Delphi and at the Community Center. We made eight 10' x 4' murals of a Western town scene that decorated the entire reception and lobby. It was the first artwork that was seen by people when they walked in. We also made three other 10' x 4' murals of bookshelves. These didn't have just books but were painted as if they were in a Western study. Then I painted a 40' x 3' mural of a sunset and some plateaus that were over the mirrors for the background of the bar. We also made a maitre d' to greet visitors. I helped out with a lot of cactus and cowboy cut-outs. I also helped make another mural.

"I really enjoyed this project, and I know that Alea and Katsu did as well. When I started the project, I wasn't planning on doing very much art personally because I didn't think I was very good at it. But I ended up painting a 40' x 3' mural of a beautiful sunset by myself, and people couldn't stop telling me how professional it looked. This was a huge win for me because I know that I did a good job with this art piece.

"I also talked to several people about Delphi and how the program works. They thanked us numerous times for our help and were very pleased with all of the artwork that we created. Also, the Mayor came and talked to me for about fifteen minutes about where I was from and what we helped with. He complimented me on my art, asked me what I wanted to do when I finished school, etc. He seemed very interested, and we had a nice talk. I really enjoyed doing this project and gained a lot from doing it. It's good to know that we helped out the community!"