JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Zac Newman works on his drawing of an orphan from El Salvador for the Memory Project at Christiansburg High School. Ben Schumaker of Madison, Wis., started the campaign as a way to chronicle children's lives in images.

CHRISTIANSBURG -- Jessica has a chubby face, and Jesus, the baby, still is missing some of his front teeth. But they both smile.

That's what draws the attention of Christiansburg High School junior Bridget Alderman to the Ecuadorian orphan she spent two days studying.

"They have so much emotion in their smiles," she said. "I kind of feel like you get connected with them."

Bridget is one of 15 students at the high school this year drawing portraits of South American orphans for the Memory Project. The nonprofit asks American students to create original portraits of children who have been abandoned, orphaned, abused or neglected. In turn, the artists often receive letters from their subjects and can build a relationship with them.

Ben Schumaker of Madison, Wis., started the campaign after he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. In 2003, he spent a month in Guatemala working at an orphanage, where children were isolated and received little to no health care.

One day, he said a man stopped to visit and told him about his life as a young orphan and how he had no parents to chronicle his life in images.

"I would have never realized unless he had told me that these kids would never grow up and have any images or special keepsakes of their lives," Schumaker said.

A year later, Schumaker started the nonprofit. He contacts orphanages across the world, asks their staff to take snapshots of children in their care and sends the pictures to interested U.S. schools.

"It's a way to help open the eyes and hearts of young people in the U.S. and bring them face to face, literally, with a child who is facing those challenges," he said. "They spend 15 hours or more sometimes working on these pictures; it's a good way to get them to think."

Since 2004, students have completed about 16,000 portraits. Schumaker, now 26, said he hopes to get about 5,000 each year with about 50 new pictures sent out daily.

Ideally, he said he would like to work with every school in the nation, although he knows it could take a decade or more. And getting enough orphanages to comply could be difficult, he said.

Betty Moore, the advanced art teacher at Christiansburg High, began having her students make the portraits when Schumaker's project began.

"I was in the kitchen doing dishes and my husband said, 'You've got to come here and see this,' " Moore said.

It was a story on the evening news about the project.

"This just means so much to them," she said. "These kids have nothing."

The art students are given no details about their subjects other than their names and the country in which they live.

Schumaker said he wants to protect the privacy of the subjects and not include some of the details of their pasts.

He said he'd like to get the orphans' answers to a list of "fun questions," such as their favorite color of animal, but logistically it's a roadblock. Often, the orphanage administrators are strapped for time, he said.

Still, students who paint the portraits think about their children, whose lives are a far contrast from purchasing stylish Ugg boots, blasting iPods and attending Friday night football games.

"It's like a fiesta" when students choose their subjects, said junior Marena Coppola. "Pretty much everyone gets so excited and wants to see who everyone else got. They are so cute."

Fifteen students in Moore's class are drawing the pictures this semester. She lets them choose their own medium, either pastel pencils, paint, charcoal or canvas.

Each medium can bring out a different emotion, she said.

In November, the students will have a showcase of their portraits at the school.

Artists pay $15 to participate. In years past, the school has paid that bill. This year, they did not. Alan and Shannon Sherman of Christiansburg paid the $225 for Moore's class to participate.

The Shermans' son, Cord, participated last year. They gave the money in honor of him, and in memory of their son, Jack, who died in 2006 from cancer while he was a student at CHS.

Alan Sherman said they just wanted to do something good for people, the way their sons taught them.

"If we can all do a little bit," life can improve for people, he said. "We need to realize we're all heroes to someone."

It's that attitude that keeps Schumaker going. This year, he's sent out 1,400 pictures from Ecuador and hopes to work with orphanages in Myanmar, Siberia and Romania soon.

Moore said she wants to use the project as a lesson about more than just art.

"I figure I'll get a map and talk to them about Ecuador and show them where it is," she said.