The Checotah High School Arts Program under the leadership of art teacher Elisa Ortiz was awarded the Carolyn Watson Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation Grant earlier in March of this year. Ortiz then used that grant money to fund a project called ?Creative Expressions Throughout Small Town Checotah? which helped to purchase all the paints and equipment needed to do murals throughout the City of Checotah. Oritz? art students started one at 8 a.m. on June 16 and finished it by 3:45 p.m. the same day.