Pueblo students will have their heroes shown to the world

Portraits in Pueblo will be showcased around the world made by elementary school students. The pictures just aren’t of anyone but of the students’ heroes.

Friends, family and students gathered at Minnequa Elementary School to see the students’ work one more time before they were sent off for the world to see.

Some students picked historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln, but for Destinee Valdez her hero is close to home, her mom.

“She really cares about me. She loves me and whenever I needed her the most, she was there,” she said.

She said she could have picked other famous people, but her mom made the biggest impact in her life.

“I mean they are really good leaders and stuff, but I know that my mom cares about me and she loves me,” Valdez said.

Paula Ann Medina is Destinee’s mother. She said when she found out she is her daughter’s hero, she was touched.

“It was amazing, I was shocked to hear that she actually picked me and that she looks up to me like that,” she said.

Destinee joins the nearly 100 other students who will have their heroes shown all over the world.

Minnequa is one of four schools in the world to participate in The Heroes Project Arts Exhibition. Each student who participates has a chance to show off people who the mean the most to them.

“It’s exciting for our kids. What we talked about tonight is that our kids are the real heroes,” Melissa Patterson said. She is the principal of Minnequa.

Even though Destinee wishes her mom could keep her piece of art, knowing that other will see that her mother is her hero is good enough for her.

The portraits will be shown in New York, Los Angeles and India starting in June.