{"id":14853,"date":"2026-03-17T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=14853"},"modified":"2026-03-17T16:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:22:17","slug":"pizza-pages-and-purpose-a-masterpiece-of-a-fundraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/pizza-pages-and-purpose-a-masterpiece-of-a-fundraiser\/","title":{"rendered":"Pizza, pages and purpose: a masterpiece of a fundraiser!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Thalia Elementary student Kaitlyn Verbanic turned her love for this Harry Potter book into pizza box artwork.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By <\/em>Heather Piccoli<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>March is Youth Art Month and National Reading Month, and Thalia Elementary kicked things off with a creative bang with the annual \u201cPizza For A Purpose\u201d program.<\/p>\n

Art teacher Heather Piccoli \u00a0found inspiration from the program in an unexpected place: the walls of California Pizza Kitchen. After seeing painted pizza boxes on display, she envisioned a project where students could use those same boxes as a canvas.<\/p>\n

When she approached the restaurant in the Town Center area of Virginia Beach, staff there didn’t just provide the boxes \u2014 they became true partners, donating a box for every single student and pledging a 20 percent donation to the school from every purchase made by the Thalia community.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t just about painting; it was about professional design. Piccoli challenged her students to:<\/p>\n