Mollie Pitrone and the Special Ed gang came together to leave their legacy on TJ’s walls.
Photo by Mia Nogueira
At the beginning of the second semester, Thomas Jefferson’s Special Education Department began brainstorming ideas on what to do for their semester Unified Legacy project. “The kids decided to do a mural that would be put up on TJ’s walls permanently,” said MI-S Program Director Mollie Pitrone.
On Wednesday, May 5th, the mural was put up on the wall in the special education hallway on the garden level. “The painting had ‘We Are Unified’ painted in big letters right in the middle, then had all the kids’ hand prints surrounding it and the year they graduated,” said Pitrone. “We left space so that hand prints can be added in the future so the legacy continues.”
The painting idea was conceived and planned at the beginning of the semester. “We came in contact with a lot of major companies, and many of them were generous enough to donate most of the materials we used in the mural,” said Pitrone. “Structural DPS Department donated the wooden planks we used as our canvas. Benjamin Moore and Ace Hardware donated the paint we used.”
This is Pitrone’s second year teaching at TJ in the Special Education program. “I wanted to put this together last year, but it didn’t get organized in time,” said Pitrone. “It went really well this year. We got every single student in the Special Ed program to participate.”
The Unified Sports Student Assistants also benefited from the overall experience. “It’s great to know that I’ll be a part of TJ for years to come,” said Senior Colette Hernandez.
Pitrone and the rest of the Special Education Department have high hopes that their project will have a strong affect on TJ. “Hopefully what we’ve done will inspire other departments to add to the overall culture of TJ,” said Pitrone.
The mural can be seen right outside of rooms 12 and 13 in the garden level of TJ.
