DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Waipahu High School seniors Grace Ramiscal, left, and Mark Ancheta spent a few hours a day, three times a week for two months to create this mural, "Life in the Pacific." Ancheta plans to attend the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and Ramiscal intends to study at San Francisco Arts Academy.

Kaiser gets a donated
face-lift for care rooms

High-school students help paint
a creative new atmosphere

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By Keiko Kiele Akana-Gooch
kakana-gooch@starbulletin.com

What once were dull yellow and green hospital walls are now underwater worlds with vibrant hues of blue, green, orange and red. Turtles, dolphins, octopus and fish are swimming, leaping and even fishing on 10 newly painted murals at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center's Pediatrics Unit.

The wall-to-wall paintings -- ranging from realistic to cartoonish, peaceful to playful -- are changing the patient experience.

"When a child is hospitalized, it's a very anxious time," said Kaiser hospital administrator Susan Merrill. "The more pleasing you make the environment, it lowers their anxiety and blood pressure."

Merrill said the murals also stimulate the children's imagination, taking their minds off their illness and medical procedures. "It's like having imaginary friends in the room," she said.

Without any perks other than their names on a plaque near their murals, 19 students from Waipahu, Pearl City and Moanalua high schools turned the glum to the glorious in 10 pediatrics unit rooms, all for the love of art and community service.

Moanalua High School 11th-grader Brittany Hill, 16, hopes the mural she and her classmates Joyce Nip, Melani Li and Aja Correa painted will help the pediatric patients feel better and recover sooner. "It felt really good to go and help kids," Hill said.

DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM "Musical Sea of Harmony" was created by Moanalua High School students earlier this month, including Melanie Li, left, Brittany Hill and Joyce Nip, along with Aja Correa (not shown). It was completed with 16 hours of work over two days.

The four students spent a total of 16 hours over the course of two days to draw and paint their mural, "Musical Sea of Harmony."

It took new Waipahu High School graduate Leana Miguel about nine hours a week for one month to paint her mural entitled "Donovan's Playground," named after her brother. Finding the right color scheme and texture took up much of the time as she painted and repainted several times the entire background and some of the fish. While perfecting a good color scheme isn't important to most pediatric patients one day to 18 years old, Miguel explained, "If you're going to do something, you should do it with a lot of heart and effort."

That's exactly what prompted Waipahu High School art teacher Gloria Jakahi to challenge her students to design and enter colored drawings in response to Kaiser Permanente's request for student submissions. "I thought it was a good opportunity to give back to the community, to show the community that teenagers can be productive."

Jakahi also wanted to disprove a common association of Waipahu students with violence, crime and gangs. "I really want the kids to be appreciated for who they really are," she said, describing her students as humble, generous, reliable and helpful.

Naomi Kukac's participation in the mural painting became a family affair, requiring schedule changes and compromises to transport 16-year-old Kukac to the hospital from either her Kapolei or Waipio Gentry homes. Finishing her mural was a relief for all. The Pearl City High School senior said, "I don't have to come rushing over here and wait for my mom or sister to pick me up." But she doesn't regret devoting a month's work -- amid driver's education classes and wrestling practice -- to brighten a child's hospital stay.

Kaiser Permanente recognized the students' generosity and efforts on Friday with lunch and small gifts.

The idea for the Moanalua murals came from Kaiser's pediatrics clinic in Nanakuli, where neighborhood high school students painted the walls several years ago. Kaiser child life coordinator Geila Fukumitsu said the paintings worked well at Nanaikeola in Nanakuli, and Moanalua wanted the same uplifting atmosphere for their pediatrics rooms. "We just wanted to make our hospital more child-friendly," Fukumitsu said.

And they've done just that. Kaiser patient Manu Afong, 15, has been in the hospital for more than a week. While he hopes to leave soon, his stay has been more enjoyable with the life-size, aquarium-like murals. "It helps me sleep and relax," he said.

"Sometimes I have a lot on my mind," he explained, like "what's going on at home and what's going to happen to me the next day." But the murals help wash over his worries. "When I wake up in the morning, here's this nice picture of sea animals on the wall."