Story and Photos by Marsha Sutton
CARLSBAD, California — Calavera Hills Middle School held an open house and reception May 2 that led off with a dedication to a newly installed Butterfly Project mural that Butterfly Project founding executive director Cheryl Rattner Price called “a model for other schools.”
She said it was a deliberate and thoughtful design and “really nailed it.”
Rattner Price said every student who participated in the project by painting a butterfly can know they left a lasting legacy.
The project, according to the school, was five years in the making and “has finally come to fruition.”
The mural was dedicated to the 1.5 million children’s lives lost in the Holocaust. Each butterfly represents one child’s lost life.
Overseeing the event was principal Judi Stapleton and eighth-grade history and social science teacher Stacy Salz who traced her ancestors to the Holocaust and said the project was a “compelling lesson in history.”
The mural, she said, was a way to memorialize the children killed in the Holocaust and is a reminder to never forget.
The school’s students painted 600 butterflies that adorn the tree, Salz said, and the art project was donated by the class of 2023.
The middle school serves 642 students in grades 6-8.
The evening also featured a band performance and exhibitions from student work. But the theme of the evening was focused on compassion, care and understanding, through lessons that are universal.
“We’re all together as one human family,” Rattner Price said.
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Marsha Sutton is a freelance writer who focuses on education.