After a year of learning about the American Indian culture, Riley Elementary schoolchildren will be helping elderly residents of the Navajo Reservation through the Adopt-an-Elder program.

It's all thanks to a horse named Goodwill. Well, maybe not a real horse, but Goodwill is a life-size replica that has been treated as an honorary classmate during the year.

He is the size of a thoroughbred and was donated by Horse Crazy in Draper.

Students primed and painted the horse blue, the color of healing — representing the sacred connection between sky and water.

Then in the Navajo tradition of the laying of hands with paint to protect the horse and the rider before they go into battle, students placed handprints on the horse.

Karen Nicksich, a fourth-grade teacher at the school who ran the project, said it incorporated the history of Utah tribes and the arts.

Her class sold the handprints for 50 cents each to schoolchildren and the community. The horse was covered with handprints within a month.

Andre Picasso, a fourth-grade student whose favorite part of the project was counting the money and who was a staple in the project's marketing operation, said the secret to selling the handprints was all in the approach.

"You have to have a nice voice when you ask," he said.

The class raised $300 for the Adopt-an-Elder program that will go to help provide reservation elders with food, clothing and supplies.

"We don't like seeing old people who are in need like for food and water," Picasso said. "We like to see them happy and walking and playing poker and stuff."

During the year as part of the unit students also got to decorate and learn to play native flutes, participate in a drum circle and even paint a real horse in the same way they painted Goodwill.

"I think they walked away with a better understanding of a people — instead of just reading. They will make a better connection when they go to middle school and learn more about the Trail of Tears and other Native American history," Nicksich said. "And I think they felt pretty good about raising the money and helping people."

The class gave the horse back to Horse Crazy where it will be on display.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com