LYNN — Chattering students filled the cafeteria, teachers had spread paints and paintbrushes and project assignments across tables, and shouts echoed across the yard of Marshall Middle School.
But it was a Sunday, and the students were at school not to study but to decorate, paint and garden.
“I just thought it’s a good opportunity to help this school,” said Zack Levenson, 16, a student at Swampscott High School. “I thought it was a good event for the community.”
Eighty-five Jewish teens from throughout the North Shore gathered with adult volunteers and students and teachers at Marshall Middle School Sunday to participate in this year’s J-Serve, a day of service for Jewish youth groups across the nation and in Israel.
This is the fourth consecutive year the event, organized by the North Shore Teen Initiative (NSTI), has helped beautify a Lynn Public School, according to Lajla LeBlanc of NSTI. Previous years’ efforts can be seen at the Ford, Harrington and Cobbett elementary schools, organizers and participants said.
In addition to offering help for a deserving cause, the day of service also provides an opportunity for Jewish teens from throughout the region to meet, as LeBlanc said participants came from communities along the coastline from Gloucester to Swampscott and as far west as Georgetown.
This was the first year, however, that some of the benefitting schools’ students participated.
About a dozen Marshall students from Project YES, which stands for Youth, Empowerment and Success, lent a hand with the projects, which included gardening, painting murals, making mosaics, and general maintenance.
“If somebody else is helping out our school, we want to help out as well,” said Brian O’Connell, a teacher at Marshall.
The Lynn Department of Public Works and The Food Project also loaned tools for the day, while businesses including Norman Paint and Wallpaper, Waters and Brown and Home Depot donated some of the materials.
Matt Jepsky, a junior at Marblehead High School, said he suggested that Marshall benefit this year because the school’s principal had directed the camp where Jepsky was a counselor in training.
“It’s a nice thing to see all the plantings, all the murals and paintings and you see your school looking good,” he said, taking a break from planting blue periwinkle and White Nancy spotted dead nettle.
Peabody High School sophomore Lauren Sliva said this was her first time participating in the day of service and she was having a good time.
“I heard they were doing all the art projects, and I’m artistically inclined and thought, ‘why not?,’” Sliva said. She was laying down “white stuff, it might be grout?” for a mosaic flower that she said would form a mosaic garden somewhere in the school. “I like it, I like it a lot; it’s a fun thing to do.”
Meanwhile adult volunteers praised the youth.
“They did a great job,” Swampscott volunteer Ellen Price said — although she admitted she was “touching up” the paint on a mural of a kite. “When they’re all working together they do a good job. They had a lot of fun and it was for a good cause.”
Marshall 8th-grade student Paul Sowe, 15, said he appreciated the effort — and he was glad to offer his help.
“Because my school gives things to me, I just wanted to give back,” Sowe said.
Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].
