Belvidere High School art students helped spread the spirit of Halloween at downtown businesses. Watch video
It's a Belvidere tradition.
For the last 22 years, Belvidere High School art teacher Chris Coyle has led his best student artists as they paint ghouls, black cats, skulls and assorted scary scenes on storefront windows in downtown Belvidere.
On Tuesday, 12 students worked on 14 windows in town.
Students work on their designs in class before hatching a plan to hit the downtown area. Coyle assigns them a window based on the drawing.
For some, he actually chooses the business windows based on the drawing. That was the case with Uncle Buck's Diner, where the front window was fashioned with a skeleton waitress wearing a pink dress and carrying a coffee cup.
Once the kids start painting, it could take anywhere from an hour to two hours depending on the details in the design.
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Nicole Rosano was among the student artists who helped create the waitress at Uncle Buck's. This is her third year painting windows. The first year she helped to paint a tree with pumpkins hanging like lights, and last year she painted a giant jack-o'-lantern.
Rosano said she jumped at the chance to get involved again.
"I'm really into art and everything, so this is like another opportunity to do it," she said.
Even though, as Gabby Ayers put it -- "It's freezing," she said -- the temperatures Tuesday morning didn't really affect the handiwork.
The students just needed a few warm-up breaks as they worked. Like Rosano, this was Ayers' third year on the job.
"It's worth it to put smiles on people's faces," she said.
Sue Beyer may be reached at sbeyer@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sbeyer_photo. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.