School Mural to Honor Youth : Simi Valley: Volunteers have begun work on the project in memory of Brandon Booker, who died in house fire.

Seven-year-old Brandon Booker will not be forgotten when the classroom bells ring on the first day of school this fall.

A crew of Simi Valley students and parents made certain of that Monday by beginning to paint a mural at Madera Elementary School to honor the second-grader, who was killed in a house fire in May.

The boy died alongside his mother May 17 while both were trying to escape their burning Simi Valley home. His father was critically burned while attempting to rescue his wife and child.

“Something good has to come out of something tragic,” said Brandon’s godmother, Robin Torreso, one of about a dozen Simi Valley residents painting at Madera.

The volunteers will spend about a week painting a giant blue mustang and blue stripes on the campus’ four main buildings. Below the mustang, which is the school’s mascot, will be an inscription dedicating the mural to Brandon.

“When it happened, it was a real shock,” said Edee Nimmons, a Simi Valley artist and part-time art teacher who designed the mural. “The teachers got together and thought it would be nice to do something in memory of the boy.”

A group of parents solicited financial support from local business owners, who have donated paint, supplies, food and drinks for the volunteers.

About $600 have also been donated. “We’ve had really enthusiastic responses,” Nimmons said. The money will pay for paint.

Last Saturday, a crew of about 20 volunteers scrubbed campus buildings in preparation for the new blue trim near the murals and a blue paint job on classroom doors.

“It hasn’t been painted in years,” Nimmons said. “It just needed a face-lift.” Students who knew Brandon lent their muscle to the project Monday, painting stripes on whitewashed walls.

“It’s really cool that everybody would do this for one person,” said Tommy Brockert, 12, who attended Madera last year and will start the seventh grade at nearby Sinaloa Junior High School in September.

Thirteen-year-old Zack Marchinsky knew Brandon through the school’s “study buddy” program, where older students are paired with younger ones.

“He was one of my good friends,” he said. “We used to call him ‘fuzz’ because he had fuzzy hair.”

Zack said the students working Monday were thinking about Brandon’s death while trimming the campus with blue paint.

“We’ve been talking about it a lot--how we miss Brandon,” he said. “And we wish he could be here. He would have liked it a lot.”