Can’t get to the beach? Just take a look at the mural on this relay box on Northampton Street in Hellertown and you’ll feel like you’re there. The painting is the work of talented Saucon Valley High School art students.
Thanks to a willingness to think “outside the mailbox” and some talented local art students, what were recently drab metal United States Postal Service relay boxes are now covered with colorful murals that are sure to brighten and add inspiration to even the gloomiest of Hellertown days.
Relay boxes are mailboxes that are solely for post office use, which is why they are painted a different color. Hellertown’s relay boxes are a camo green.
Saucon Valley High School art teacher Jason Gordon explained Wednesday that some of his students were recently “given an amazing opportunity to bring the power of art into their community” by painting the relay boxes.
“In conjunction with the Hellertown post office, Postmaster Joseph DiRusso allowed students to design and paint murals on the relay boxes used in Hellertown,” he said. “Three relay boxes were painted this year, and three more will be painted next year.”
Hellertown Postmaster Joe DiRusso stands next to a mural-painted relay box on Northampton Street.
Two of the painted relay boxes are already on display. One is located in the 100 block of Northampton Street and the other is on Main Street by BB&T.
Gordon said the third box is being worked on now and will be located near Braveheart Highland Pub, which is at 430 Main St., Hellertown.
The box on Northampton Street has an “under the sea” theme while the box by the bank has a mural that depicts outer space.
This “out of this world” mural is on a relay box in the 700 block of Main Street in Hellertown, next to BB&T.
“Students taking part in my Painting 2/3 course led this project, as other students stopped by to help throughout the days,” Gordon said.
The project “has been and will continue to be a great experience for SVHS students,” he added.
Gordon said murals help to build a sense of community, “and while the end products–the works of public art–are always beautiful, their deeper value lies in the conversations created, the connections built and the legacy students have created in their community.”
“I am proud of the job the students here at SVHS have done for their community and the arts,” he commented.
Gordon also thanked DiRusso for giving students the opportunity to share their art with the local community.
A post office relay box is an unusual canvas for Saucon Valley High School art students. Once the mural on this box is complete, it will be returned to its home on Main Street near Braveheart Highland Pub in Hellertown.