Freehold Intermediate
School artists honored
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

CLARE MARIE CELANO Art students at the Freehold Intermediate School, Freehold Borough, were honored for painting a wall mural that was displayed at an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society. See page 16.

FREEHOLD — Freehold Intermediate School art students have been recognized by school administrators and members of the community in recognition of their hard work and talent.

Presentations to the pupils were made at the Nov. 18 Board of Education meeting.

Roger Kane and Sheryl Mott, members of the borough’s Spooktacular Committee, attended the meeting to acknowledge the work of pupils who participated in the annual painting of shop windows at Halloween time.

Kane and Mott presented the young artists with certificates of appreciation for the job they did in dressing-up the store windows and giving the downtown area a festive look in October.

The Halloween window painting has been going on for 15 years and has been done primarily by high school students, with some assistance from Leslie Daley’s art class for gifted and talented students. Daley said the high school students al­ways extend an invitation to her stu­dents to participate in the event. She said her students are always happy to go.

Kane told district administrators the students have been decorating the town for years and said it was time they re­ceived recognition from the town for all of their hard work and dedication to this annual event.

Another group of Daley’s art students were treated to a special reward for their efforts in painting a large wall mural for the American Cancer Society.

Daley said the mural was displayed at the Ramada Inn, Toms River, at the Jersey Shore Region’s Chapter of the American Cancer Society’s fifth annual gala affair, "An Evening at the Shore." Daley said officials from the cancer soci­ety plan to use the mural at upcoming events in northern and central New Jersey.

The six panels of the mural were on loan and displayed in the intermediate school lunchroom. The 8-foot by 4-foot panels, done in soft shades of blue, white, pink and purple, presented a beach theme with sailboats, a light­house, sand castles, beach chairs, beach toys and people sunning themselves along a long stretch of sand.

Daley said she was extremely proud of her seventh- and eighth-grade stu­dents. She said their talent and enthusi­asm are "amazing."

"They are all so very busy, yet they always find the time to spend hours and hours at the art room for community ac­tivities," the teacher said.

The students who worked on the mu­ral were eighth-graders Frankie Santoriello, Ann Baez, Erica Isaacs, Luis Torres and Robert Mudrich, and sev­enth-grader Christina Torres. The pro­ject took the students more than three weeks to complete and they worked al­most every day after school for two hours.

School board President Peter DeFonzo said he was very proud of the children.

"We can put their art work up against any school in the state," the board presi­dent said.