Community Gives Campus a Touch-Up

Volunteers pulled weeds, painted over graffiti, raked leaves and even planted pumpkin seeds at Fair Avenue Elementary School on Saturday.

About 150 parents, students and teachers got down and dirty to beautify their school. Some painted chipped poles and storage bins while others planted rosebushes in front of the campus.

“It needed a lot of touch-up, and a good sweeping and cleaning,” Principal Maxine Matlen said. “It’ll build a strong community so [parents and students] know it’s their school.”

Many parents said they were happy to make their children’s school a prettier place, although Maria Zavaleta confided she had been planning to clean her house. “But I like to help so everything looks clean,” she said.

“Our campus is a 24-hour campus. We have so much going on,” said Susana Contreras, the school’s bilingual coordinator, adding that Fair Avenue offers after-school programs and evening classes for parents. “Our parents take pride in our campus.”

Third-grade teacher Janet Leary took advantage of the cleanup by teaching her students a hands-on lesson about a plant’s cycle of life. The students planted seeds for making future “salsa” sauce--herbs, green chiles and green peppers--and pumpkin seeds.

“We want to grow the largest pumpkin we can by Halloween,” Leary said.

Ten volunteers from the Target store in North Hollywood also participated, and the store provided plants, gloves, shovels and painting tools.

Although Daisy Villanueva, 14, already graduated from the school, which houses students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, she removed graffiti and cleaned outdoor lunch tables at her alma mater.

“I was here six years and liked it here,” the North Hollywood girl said. “It just came from the heart.”