With funding from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the St. Croix Educational Complex High School partnered with the University of the Virgin Islands Sea Grant Marine Outreach Program and the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA) in “The Reef Is Closer Than You Think” community campaign.
To promote positive environmental change, students used art to depict the message that, “our actions affect the reef’s future and the reef’s future affects ours.” This mural is part of a broad scale effort to increase environmental literacy and foster public awareness and action in coral reef conservation.
The teachers that worked with students on this project were Anne Marie Gibbs, Dwydale Dharia and Gregory Famucol from the St. Croix Educational Complex. Ms. Lynnea Roberts, St. Croix Environmental Association, assisted by recruiting the teachers at Complex and then provided coordination for installment. Special thanks to the students of the Coral Conservation Corps after school club, general biology class, art classes, and volunteers within the school who created this mural during the 2010-11 school year.
Gallow’s Bay Hardware assisted with this project by transporting the mural from the Educational Complex to Sunny Isles. A construction company that wishes to remain anonymous brought scaffolding and a crew to install the art work on May 16. Thanks go to Sunny Isles Shopping Center management for allowing the installation of the mural on the Payless Shoes building.
