THOMASVILLE — Local youths are encouraging community members to embrace their creativity on “A Starry, Starry Night.”

The celebration of the creative arts is presented by Thomasville Scholars Academy’s Creative Thinking Class on Friday. It is the first annual “Creativity Night” and features a variety of activities aimed toward promoting creative thinking.

“This has been a dream of mine for three or four years, to have a night to show what students can do,” instructor Sharon Cernogorsky said. “Children need an area to express themselves, an area to pull out their creativity. A lot of people have it naturally but it can be developed. That’s what this class does; it celebrates creativity and helps develop it in others.”

The creative thinking class has 27 students, grades sixth through eighth. All chose to be in the class.

Honored creative thinker for the inaugural event is artist Vincent van Gogh. The night is named after one of his most famous paintings.

“‘Starry, Starry Night’ is a celebration of the creative mind and our activities allow people to use their minds because they have to think a lot,” Justin O’Neal, 14, eighth-grader, said. “There will be 15 rooms set up that students will be running, each with a separate activity.”

Seventh-grader Sarah Wells, 12, has been looking forward to “Starry, Starry Night” for more than a year.

“We talked about this last year but did not have the time to do it,” she said. “I like it because it deals with Van Gogh. I like to draw and to paint. This event allows us to take a bunch of creative ideas and find cool ways to create stuff.”

Rachel Willis, 12, a seventh-grader, said students chose their own activities groups — including a talent show — and have been organizing the event.

Creative thinking activities include sphere books, cake decorating, T-shirts, stars, flip-flops, marbling, sculpture, rainsticks, masks, Van Gogh Gallery, flipsticks, free form sculpture, gloop, balloon people and paper towels.

Sixth-grader Ivy Cox, 12, is working in Van Gogh Gallery.

“The whole room is going to be covered with all of his arts,” she said. “We’re having coloring and quiz contests, too. All the coloring pages will be posted around the room. It’s going to be really cool. Then, we’ll have information and quotes up about Van Gogh.”

Students also praised their teacher, affectionately dubbed “Ms. C.”

“She’s really good at letting us assert our own independence and teaches us a lot of responsibility,” eighth-grader Catherine Miller, 13, said. “She’s also helping us bring out our creativity, not just for the night but in everything we do.”

The event — sponsored by several local businesses and organizations — is also a fund-raiser for students to attend Odyssey of the Mind competitions, Cernogorsky said. The competition involves creative problem solving and the school generally sends four teams.

“I’ve been doing Odyssey about 12 years and the kids have to solve the problems themselves,” Cernogorsky said. “That’s why this event is a good start for them.”

Admission to activity rooms will range from 25 cents to $5. Dinner will also be available for participants.

Parent Sandra Hall is in charge of the dinner — a menagerie of French foods — that will be available from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. A dinner is $7 each and includes a drink. For kids who don’t want to brave the foreign cuisine, there will be pizza for $2.

“We, as parents, are thrilled with this event because it gives our children and all students a chance to experience creativity in new ways,” Hall said.

Youths encouraged residents and fellow students to take part in “A Starry, Starry Night.”

“This is gonna be a blast,” seventh-grader Justin Hickman, 12, said. “It just proves that students can do a lot.”