Walk into Healdsburg Elementary School these days and you’ll be greeted by a mural that is sure to make you smile.
The art piece—made of construction paper—depicts a little girl pushing a wheelbarrow full of plump pumpkins beneath a shower of leaves falling from a nearby tree. Above her, in the leaves, reads a message: “Fall in love with learning at Healdsburg Elementary and Healdsburg Charter School.”
This piece is the handiwork of Lupe King.
King, 49, has done more than a dozen such murals for Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) over the last three years, including all the district’s artwork to celebrate Dr. Seuss during National Read Across America Week in March. Since September, in addition to another fall-scape at the lower school, she has created a diving-themed mural to celebrate a first-grade charter class, and a stork-themed door panel to celebrate the birth of a Fitch Mountain Campus teacher’s baby girl.
The best part: King does the art pro bono—her day job is as a paraprofessional who helps individual students with special needs.
“For me the artwork is all about the reaction that people have to it,” explains the Cloverdale native. “That one second the pieces take a kid or an adult to a place of imagination.; if it can take them away for a split and make them smile, that makes me happy.”
King has spent her entire lifetime giving to various communities. She was inspired to get into education after caring for a younger brother with disabilities. All told, she has worked for HUSD for 20 years. Before that, King drove an ambulance as an EMT in San Francisco and served as a volunteer firefighter here in Healdsburg.
She also is the mother of four girls, including two in their 20s and two in the school district today.
When King’s first pair of daughters went through the school district, King headed up Girl Scout troops in which they were members. Recently she started another troop to which her younger girls belong. It is the second troop currently operating in Healdsburg.
Officially known as Troop 10278, King’s new group is unique in that it comprises girls from a wide range of ages: 7 to 12. In their first month together, the girls already have had quite an impact: They made and distributed thank-you cards to local veterans for Veteran’s Day, and they set up a costume drive to supply a Halloween Free Store for community members who can’t afford to buy costumes next year.
(The costume drive is going on through the end of November; the troop is accepting donations in bins at both elementary campuses, as well as at Exchange Bank and City Hall.)
King says the troop only will get more involved over the rest of the year.
“I want to be a part of my community and know that I’ve helped create a better world for these girls,” she says. “I feel very lucky that parents will give me the opportunity to help in any way I can.”
As for the murals, there’ll be more of those in the coming weeks, too. King says she’s planning a variety of pieces for the lower school that will depict holiday celebrations around the world. She adds that teachers at the upper school have asked her to create holiday-season door panels that shout out to “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.”
All this giving certainly will keep Lupe King busy. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
Matt Villano is a local writer and editor. His column spotlights good people in the community doing great things. Learn more about him at whalehead.com.
