REA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS -- For a good cause

Amy R. Spurgeon

COSTA MESA -- Mike Howard, Operation Clean Slate’s executive director,

has exposed Rea Elementary School students to a different kind of lesson

plan: the beautification of and respect for campus property.

More than 44 students volunteered their time Tuesday to paint a

larger-than-life mural on the wall of a playground building. The job

required 40 gallons of weather-resistant paint, 100 paint brushes of

various shapes and sizes and dozens of thirst-quenching sodas.

The school and corporate sponsors picked up the mural’s $4,000 price tag.

And the kids were pleased with their efforts.

“I like painting. It makes me feel nice,” said Hugo Chavarria, 11, of

Costa Mesa. Hugo stood on the third rung of a five-rung red ladder. He

painted a blue ribbon on one of the fictitious students depicted in the

mural.

“Sometimes people come and paint the school bad, and we are painting it

pretty,” the fourth-grader added.

Since 1992, Operation Clean Slate, a Costa Mesa-based nonprofit agency,

has traveled throughout the Southland engaging students and others with

the idea of creating positive artwork.

Howard’s vision for community outreach came during a volatile time in

Orange County’s history.

“What we were doing was reacting to the graffiti problem in the county by

painting over it. Really what was happening was kids expressing

themselves in a negative way,” said Howard, his hands covered in various

shades of paint. “They were taking it out on our neighborhoods in a

destructive manner.

“We teach children that they have to get permission before painting on a

wall. This is a ‘we’ thing, not a ‘me’ thing,” he added.In other cities,

Howard has been hired to create anti-tobacco murals. At Rea, the emphasis

is good things on campus.

For a year, Howard has worked with Rea Principal Ken Killian to bring the

project to fruition. The final sketch showing a shark -- the school

mascot -- surrounded by students and books was a combination of drawings

submitted by students.

“It’s looking good,” said a physical education teacher walking past the

mural.

Not everyone could participate in the painting. So during lunch,

interested students hung around the wall to comment on its progress.

“In my class, everybody wanted to do it so we had a drawing,” said

fourth-grade teacher Candy Gibeaut. “Everyone was so excited to do it. It

looks great.”

Starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Howard supervised the event from beginning to

end. He will return today to layer the painting with a protective

coating.

“The beauty of this is that they can take this experience into the

community and do other volunteer work,” Howard said.

“Fidel, can you climb up one more step and paint in that middle line?

Make sure you lean in,” he advised one boy, adding a word of praise: “It

looks good, Fidel.”