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READING, Pa. – For Veronica Vang and Ana Del Rosario, this mural at the Olivet Clinton Street Club is something they helped create.
“I liked when we painted it, it was really fun…and I’m gonna say it’s very beautiful,” Vang said.
It’s called Champions of Possibility, led by artist and Olivet Boys & Girls Club alumnus Theron Cook.
“It was unreal because VOiCEup had partnered with East Penn Manufacturing, and we had a number of volunteers, I think around 40 or 50, who paired with our kids,” said Kristen Orgera, development manager at Olivet Boys & Girls Club.
“So these two generations were helping each other out, painting on the mural side by side,” Orgera added.
Every color, every design, and every message started with ideas from the kids, and now they can see their work every single day.
However, those ideas started months before the paint went on the wall. Before the murals’ creation, kids were asked what leadership, community, and possibility mean to them.
“I want them to think hope, inspiration, creativity, because that’s what we do here at the Olivet,” said Baba Waples, director of the Clinton Street Olivet.
“We inspire our young members to be everything they could be,” said Waples.
And for the kids who painted it, it’s something they can proudly come back to years from now.
“I would really be proud of myself because I helped Olivet make it more colorful,” Del Rosario said.
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