New Orleans (WGNO) – There’s a cheerleading team at Eleanor McMain Secondary School that carries paintbrushes instead of pom poms.
Every week inside the colorful classroom where the Gifted Art students meet, a transformation happens. Sheleen Jones is the leader of this artistic team — she coaches her students as they turn blank canvases into banners with witty sayings that help rally the community when they are hung up on the fence along Nashville Avenue.
It’s a spiritual journey: part school spirit, part team spirit — and a spirited shout out for the Saints football team. The theme changes according to who the black and gold are facing on the gridiron.
When it was Atlanta, the banner read: “Get To Flockin ‘Dirty Birds'” For Seattle, it said: “The Seventh Supper We’re Having Seahawks. ” And when they were up against the Chiefs, the saying was, “Who’s the ‘Chief’ Now.”
For this week, as a way to mock Denver, it reads, “We Ride the Broncos for Sport.”
“Since we’re playing against the Broncos, we came up with a really good slogan where we’re riding the Broncos, pretty much like we’re the Trojan warriors, something like that,” says Nma Uwaezuoke, a senior in the Gifted Art Program.
Jones gives her students guidance every step of the way — and has even explained how the banner creation process would work from a business perspective.
“My goal is getting them from one point to another, to be able to start and finish a project and be able to work together,” says Jones, who is an artist in her own right — she is a sculptor, responsible for several statues on display around the city.
When the season is over, she hopes to raffle off the banners, or find some other way to transform the canvases once again, this time into funding for school supplies or field trips.
Otherwise, they might simply be used to decorate the school.