I am David Orona, the art teacher at Manuel Jara Elementary. I have fantastic information to share from a very successful community mural project we all completed this past Saturday, Oct. 21., in honor of the members of Post 838, founded by four members of the original Tuskegee Airmen.

Per Post 838, 768 individuals attended/participated in the community mural event. This includes all of Post 838, plus their employees, Tarrant County and City of Fort Worth (FW) officials, FW police officers, Texas Christian University (TCU) students, TCU Community Engagement folks, the TCU vice chancellor, charter bus drivers, American Legion members, members from Post 569 and the post in Mansfield, Texas, and Haltom City, our very own FWISD music and art teachers - along with their family members, FWISD Board trustee and president Dr. Rodriguez, four current officers serving in our military, food truck folks, JROTC students, FWISD Public Relations, NBC and Telemundo, RACE Street Community Arts District Board, Loews Corporate and, most importantly, the families from the surrounding neighborhood. The community came out to help create this joyful mural celebrating the men and women who have served and are in service to our great republic.

It was wonderful having our very own FWISD music and art educators come out to help; this includes Sam Rosen, Dolores Huerta, S.S. Dillow, C.C. Moss, T. A. Sims, Kirkpatrick Elementary, South Hi - Mount, Manuel Jara Elementary ... just to name a few ... all volunteering to contribute their Saturday to make this very important event a success.

Everything was donated, amounting to over $4,000, and all done with the power of volunteerism - community service.

I included a few photos to help illustrate the incredible energy of people working together in service to honor these heroes.

A gigantic shout-out to you, Commander Arreola - we all greatly appreciate you for all you do each and every day for our student champions, for our great republic and for us all!

David Orona