Massaro: School, synagogue share a colorful bond

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Brown International Academy started the school year with a new name and new friends.

The North Denver school - formerly Brown Elementary - finished with a big boost from a south suburban synagogue.

Brown is brighter and more colorful, thanks to help from those new friends, because of a mural on a retaining wall leading from the street to the playground. It was a group effort, and the final touch on a year of giving and learning.

Temple Sinai formed a partnership with Brown at the beginning of the school year, giving backpacks filled with grade-level supplies, donating calculators to fifth-graders. Through the year, members continued to pitch in, buying Thanksgiving baskets and holiday gifts for Brown families.

Adults came to tutor reading and writing four days a week.

It was an extension of the mitzvah tradition of doing something for the community for a day. In the past, Temple Sinai members picked up trash in parks and painted women's shelters.

"It was all very good," said Linda Stein. "But we wanted to do something with longer-lasting benefits. We wanted it to have more depth."

It was Marie Gordon's idea to extend the tradition into a year- long project. She proposed her idea to Stein and Lisa Friedman, who pitched it to fellow temple members.

Gordon suggested Brown because she knew Principal Suzanne Loughran, who had been principal at Cotton Creek Elementary School.

Art teacher Barth Quenzer envisioned painting a mural.

"We didn't have the money for paint," he said. "We didn't have the help."

Temple Sinai member Jim Diner, owner of ProCoat Systems, donated buckets of paint and brushes.

"As a former DPS student, it was nice to be able to give back," Diner said.

Cherry Creek High School students Max Frieder, 17, and Amanda Borow, 16, helped with sketches and supervised the younger students.

The mural depicts the four seasons, planets and stars, budding life and waves.

"We named our project Mitzvah - a Wave of Life," Stein said. "Like a pebble dropped in a pond makes waves, we wanted our good deed by the community to create waves."

The children are proud.

Jessica Struck, 6, grabbed my hand and showed me her handiwork, proudly pointing out the hummingbird she painted.

Charity Rhoades, 10, ran alongside the mural, pointing as she went and saying, "I did this. I did this. And I did this."

Steven Montoya, 10, touched the painting almost like he was petting a puppy.

Patricia Vialpando, mother of young artist Cassie Vialpando, 10, was pleased as well.

"They inspired these kids," she said. "They know they can accomplish whatever they want."

Massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271.