Puhi painters transform park

PUHI — About 60 seventh-grade art class students from Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School took a field trip Monday to help beautify Puhi Park as part of their curriculum.

Under the direction of art instructor Neil Thompson, the students rotated through the park in three shifts, transforming park structures into a colorful, themed center.

Thompson said the project started when he got a call from Beverly Pang of the mayor’s office inquiring if there were students interested in the project.

That phone call initiated a series of planning sessions where students got together to start designing the make-over.

The restrooms were transformed into an underwater scene, the family pavilions took on a jungle motif utilizing local flora, and the baseball dugouts boast a sports motif.

Students were involved in the planning stages as well as construction of the stencils utilized to bring their plans to life.

Armed with this classroom work, the students descended on the park Monday, where they set out to sketch out the different motifs and prepare the paint that would be applied to bring life to their ideas.

The first group worked on applying the initial setting on the restrooms and did most of the work on the pavilions, while the second group attacked the dugouts, many of the artists being members of boys or girls teams in the ongoing county 12-and- under basketball program.

The sports motif is highlighted with dugout bars painted black and white, symbolizing the colors worn by basketball referees, while the walls tout a background of green against which different sports equipment jumped out.

As the structures in the park were transformed, one student noted, “Painting sucks, but the idea of community service is a good feeling.”

Sports Editor Dennis Fujimoto may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or mailto:dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.