Pasadena abuzz over project involving hundreds of kids handprints – Houston Chronicle

The dull concrete median with six light poles in front of Richey Elementary School probably dont draw much attention.

But a color-filled project involving students from six local schools will soon guarantee that the concrete barrier draws plenty of notice.

Sometime this spring, the median will be graced by nearly 300 set of handprints of students from Richey, Kruse and Morales elementary schools, De Zavala Middle School, Jackson Intermediate School and Pasadena High School.

When engineers involved in the city of Pasadenas Richey Street renovation project reached out to city education liaison Trish Eubanks to seek participation by Pasadena ISD in beautification work related to the effort, she jumped at the opportunity to incorporate youths from the community.

Lets make it look good, she said.

The Richey Street project is part of an ongoing effort by the city to make improvements to the north side of the city between Texas 225 and Southmore Avenue.

Since 2018, the $12 million project, with funding divided between the city and Harris County Precinct 2, has updated the street with improved or added storm sewers and lights and new traffic signals.

The project also has provided upgrades to the four-lane road and installed wheelchair-accessible lanes on sidewalks. The goal is to mitigate flooding in nearby homes and ease traffic at a main entry point into Pasadena.

Add in the Hands Across Pasadena project, in which the handprints will be set in square mosaic-style tiles, colored and glazed and then incorporated into the median.

I thought it was a great way to bring focus to area schools near Richey and wanted to showcase the children of that area, Eubanks said.

Eubanks is familiar with the I-cant-wait-to-get-out-of-here attitude young people sometimes have about their hometown as they contemplate their future. She wants to change that.

I want them to have a sense of sense of pride in where they come from, she said. If they can have some ownership in this project, they can feel they have some ownership of their community, that this is where they come from, where they grew up.

Eubanks said she and the citys engineers put careful thought into the actual tiles and what size, colors, type of materials were used.

They decided they would use 6-by-6-inch tiles, place them in three rows with six tiles to each section. Students at Pasadena High School will glaze and fire the tiles to prepare them for installation.

Eubanks spent 30 years in education, including 15 years as assistant principal at Pasadena Memorial High School. She had retired when Mayor Jeff Wagner called on her to join the city as an education liaison.

He wanted more of a partnership between the city and school district, she said. There has always been a kind of disconnect with kids and their city, and if young people dont feel like they have a stake in the game, they dont have that sense of pride in where they come from.

Alongside each set of prints will be a students initials and projected graduation date.

By identifying those kids and the year they graduate, I wanted them to be able to come back and say, Thats me, Eubanks said.

At De Zavala, 41 students placed hands onto tiles. For Principal Melissa Garza, the prints are more than decorative. The project is like motivational art, she said.

It gives them hope and it gives them something to look forward to, Garza said.

Parents were not able to attend the schools recent handprint event due to COVID restrictions but have expressed as much enthusiasm as students, Garza said.

Parents are already talking about having their kids take a picture next to their tile with their cap and gown, Garza said. They can drive down Richey, and its like a daily reminder this is their high school graduation date. We talk about school, we talk about graduation, we talk about college, but now its in concrete. Thats a big deal.

Eubanks shared one anecdote about a middle-schooler whose handprints, initials and graduation date are waiting to be set in concrete.

He told me he was going to be the first member of his family to graduate from high school. So, I told him, Now you have you have to live up to that date he has a definitive goal to shoot for now, she said.

yorozco@hcnonline.com

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Pasadena abuzz over project involving hundreds of kids handprints - Houston Chronicle