Students Helping Students - A Workday Project Highlight at Carnegie Middle School

The students at Avalon Continuation High School are well on their way to completing one of their projects in celebration of this year’s 8th Annual Sharefest Workday. The students formed a mural team which is being lead by senior Freddie Tobar. All of the students chosen to be a part of the team have a heart for service and great artistic skills. The students formed this group when they saw the outcry for help for the Workday on the Sharefest website. The students then adopted the project at Carnegie Middle School. One of the beautification projects that Carnegie was asking for was that a mural of their mascot, the Carnegie Highlander be painted in the basketball gym as a symbol of school pride and an encouragement towards education. This is something that Freddie and his team wanted to rally behind and show their support. One member of the group, David Torres, is a former Highlander himself and had this to say: “I love being able to give back to this school. They gave a lot to me. I really had a good time here”.

The students are being taught by professional artist Arnaud Demasceno. Arnaud has lead mural projects before in other underserved communities and was delighted to give the students at Avalon the chance to learn how to construct something of beauty that will have a lasting impact for future generations to come. “The real work here is with the Avalon students, the mural is just the vehicle. I want the students to learn how to complete a project from beginning to end. I think it is important that they learn discipline and professionalism. The fact that they’re doing this for kids younger than themselves is just the “icing on the cake”.

The students at Avalon are working steadily so that this project is complete by this year’s Workday on May 14th. This is one of two projects that the team has ambitiously adopted. The students have also been talking about making this team a permanent part of Avalon High School where murals and possibly other beautification projects can be done on a year-round basis at other local schools in need.

Take a look at the students' progress. (For more photos visit the Sharefest Flickr page.)