Art students at Millard's Russell Middle School are coming in early and staying late for a special assignment, paintings for a new addition at Children's Hospital.

Their artwork will be on permanent display to help brighten stays for young patients. The project has an even deeper purpose for some.

"My brother got cancer at six years old and he's spent many weeks at a time up at the hospital, so I've been up there a lot and it's just really meaningful to be able to give back,” said sixth-grader Patrick Collins.

"All my life, I've grown up around Children's Hospital with my sister being there,” said eighth-grader Josh Lallman. "She was born with spina bifida."

Lallman's been at his sister's side through countless appointments. "Going in there, we always would see the art, coming in there and that would just brighten the day and it's cool to be able to have someone else look at your art like that."

Children's Hospital needed artwork for the addition and they called on art teacher Becky Zach.

"We did it in 2000 when they did the new addition and what we did is we did farm animals and stuff. Then they called us up again and asked if we could do something like water animals for their new addition so I thought, how fun, how fun would that be to do that?"

Zach found out how much the project would hit home for her students, who have been spending a lot of time in the classroom before and after school for the last three weeks.

"They come in at seven o'clock in the morning, they're here before I am sometimes."

They know they're making a difference with every stroke of the brush. "It makes me feel good, real good that I've donated something to the hospital,” said Collins.