Green Mountain Union High School Junior Lily Nader Contributes Drawing to Hearse House Restoration Campaign

The Chester Beautification Committee thanks Green Mountain Union High School junior Lily Nader for answering its request for a student to create a line drawing of the Hearse House and Public Tomb. These two buildings flank the entrance to the Brookside Cemetery across from the Village Green in the center of Chester and are a cooperative project between the Chester Beautification Committee [CBC] and the Town of Chester. CBC is spearheading a two-phase effort to raise funds to first structurally restore the two buildings and then equip the Hearse House with the appropriate protections and educational displays that will allow the magnificent hearse, owned by the Town and presently stored elsewhere, to return to its rightful home and, together with the building, become a significant historic attraction for residents and visitors.

A somewhat recent transplant from Illinois, Lily - who started drawing at an early age - progressed to charcoal in middle school and then painting in high school. She likes to paint and prefers oils, but is getting "more comfortable" with acrylics, and sometimes does watercolors over an ink drawing. She usually paints landscapes, especially trees, and people. She was recruited to help the restoration project by her high school art teacher Ethan Lima. She says she was not very familiar with pen and ink, in fact never drawn to it, but finally gave into the request after about a week of considering the matter. Lily is in her second year at Green Mountain and has taken creative arts there for two years, along with many science classes. Presently she is taking AP Biology.

Obviously talented as an artist, Lily considers art a hobby. Her passion is science, and she hopes to become a neurobiologist. She is interested in people and how they function, how the brain works - more physically than psychologically. She would like to attend the University of Vermont, which is one of the few universities that offer a neuroscience major, and would be interested in finding out more about the possibility of volunteering or shadowing a doctor at Springfield Hospital. She also would be inclined to do commissioned artwork on the side.

Anyone interested in her artwork may contact [email protected].

For the moment, however, Lily is happy to have helped the all-volunteer Chester Beautification Committee with its latest project to enhance the town in which she lives.

Captions for photos:

Group shot: Members of the Hearse House subcommittee of Chester Beautification accept Lily Nader's line drawing of the Hearse House and Public Tomb. From left to right: Mariette Bock, Nancy Chute, Lily Nader, Tory Spater Sommerville, Lillian Willis, Suzy Forlie.

The line drawing of the Hearse House and Public Tomb at the entrance to Brookside Cemetery, opposite the Village Green in Chester. The drawing is by Lily Nader, junior at Green Mountain Union High School.