Artwork from Kent student on CNN Web site to illustrate Anne Frank story

The artwork of a Cedar Heights Middle School student in Kent was recently posted on CNN’s Web site as part of an article about Anne Frank.

Lucas Reider, an eighth-grade student, used colored pencils to draw a large tree growing out of the world and the words “change,” “respect,” “peace,” and “tolerance” on the roots. On the tree’s branches are pictures of children who survived the holocaust. On the website, click on the link “Inspiration” below the picture of Frank.

Frank and her family, who were Jewish, hid from the Nazis during World War II. Her diary of those days has been read by thousands of people around the world in the decades since the war ended. In the diary, she includes descriptions of a chestnut tree outside her window. The tree is now 170 years old and has been slowly dying for the last decade. Seeds from the tree were planted to grow into seedlings. Those seedlings are going to be planted around the world, including one site in Seattle, the Washington State Holocaust Resource Center.

Reider created the drawing after the Washington State Holocaust Resource Center sponsored an art contest to raise awareness about the seedlings and the need to treat other people with kindness. The seedlings are being planted in 11 places in the United States including The White House, a high school, parks, museums and memorials.