Youths Invited to Join Mural Project

By staging a mural project this weekend with youngsters--including gang members--community activists are hoping to paint a brighter picture for Oxnard’s youths.

“It is to send a message to gang members to stop all this gang violence and tell them that there is another way,” said Gus Cortez, a pastor at Oxnard’s Victory Fellowship Church and one of the event’s organizers. “If you paint something that attracts attention, it will mean something to them and it will be a powerful message to them.”

Organizers said any youths who want to help paint the mural should come to the lot on Meta Street between 5th and 6th streets in Oxnard at 10 a.m. Sunday or Monday.

On both days Chumash leaders will bless the ground, speakers will appeal for a moratorium on violence and event organizers will sponsor a potluck barbecue at noon.

Oxnard artist Sunny Atkinson, the event’s coordinator, said Get-More Loan & Jewelry has donated the walls for the mural. Teshpen White Bear, a Chumash artist, is developing the artwork’s design.

But the organizers need more paint, Atkinson said. And they are still trying to come up with $1,400 to rent scaffolding for the project.

“We need an angel who loves art to cover that,” she said.

Atkinson is expecting up to 200 community members, muralists and others to attend over the weekend. Children under 16 need to have their parents sign a release allowing them to paint using the scaffolding, Atkinson said.

For more information, call Cortez at 483-8973.