DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Members of Beta Alpha Psi, an accounting, information systems and finance fraternity, painted a map of the United States yesterday at the Lunalilo Elementary School playground. The group also striped the parking lot and covered graffiti.
Fraternity’s map
helps local studentsCollege students paint an outdoor
U.S. map at Lunalilo Elementary
Lunalilo Elementary school students have an addition to their basketball court: a giant, brightly colored map of the United States.
A group of about 50 college students from the national accounting, information systems and finance fraternity Beta Alpha Psi painted the map on the playground's blacktop yesterday. The group also striped the parking lot, covered graffiti and helped parents paint large flowers on the sidewalk for decoration.
More than 900 finance students from the national fraternity are in Hawaii for their annual conference and participated in different service projects across the island yesterday, including painting at the school on Pumehana Street in McCully.
Kelly Carino, from the University of Connecticut, added the last pink touches to the state of Oregon. The senior, majoring in accounting, was happy to be in "paradise" and helping the local community, she said.
"It's cool to paint the playground. They can use it to learn about geography," she said. "It's more visual for them."
The school had the big map on the wish list for 10 years but never had the funds or a stencil to add it to the playground, said school counselor Corinne Fujioka.
"It's great and we're really fortunate," she said.
Principal Clyde Igarashi can't wait to see the students' surprise when they return to school on Aug. 21.
He hopes the map, complete with a teacher's handbook of geography lessons, will increase "overall geography awareness," he said.
U.S. history is not taught until fifth grade, but he said he knows the students will benefit from seeing the map daily, especially since some students learn better visually.
"It will help make a big impact on students," he said.
The elementary students are not the only ones benefiting from the map. The fraternity group also got a lesson in geography while trying to paint the map following the stencil.
"I'm making an executive decision and we are repainting that purple," declared fraternity member Rhonda Schnipke.
The group made a section of Maryland part of another state, so it had to repaint that section.
Schnipke, a graduate student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, remembers a similar map at her elementary school and is happy to "bring a piece of home here," she said.
All the while, she said she knows she is learning valuable skills like teamwork and brotherhood while working with students from all over the country during the service project. And best of all, she is having lots of fun helping others, said Schnipke.
When the last of Louisiana's boot-shaped outline got the final touches of paint, the group stood back, clapped and smiled.
"What a sense of accomplishment," said Schnipke.
