At Keolu Drive and Akiohala Street in Kailua, a crosswalk beside Kaʻelepulu Elementary now carries a design shaped by the school’s students. Third- and fourth-grade summer-school students developed the mural with local artist Lauren Roth. More than 70 volunteers helped paint it over the weekend of Sept. 19, and an official blessing took place that week, Hawaii News Now reported Oct. 2.
The rainbow mural has an everyday purpose alongside the artwork: to help drivers recognize they are passing a school. Sara Wong, a teacher and student adviser, told Hawaii News Now the students chose bright colors in hopes drivers would slow down. The report also described the design as visually narrowing the road and reminding drivers of the school zone. Those are intentions, not measured results; the stories reviewed do not provide post-installation speed or collision data.
The project remembers Jenifer Van Lent, a retired educator, mother and grandmother whom her family called “Mama Jen.” She was killed in a crosswalk near the school in January 2023 during a morning walk, the report said. Her daughter, Sabrina Cervantes, and family members still bring flowers weekly to a spot in her memory. Cervantes joined volunteers in painting part of the mural.
The project grew out of a concern about school-zone safety. Hawaii News Now reported that earlier measures included “see me” flags, but cars continued speeding past the school and many parents feared letting students walk to school. The mural carries a safety goal alongside the memorial: call attention to a place where children cross and encourage drivers to slow down.
A Hawaiʻi Department of Education newsletter on Aug. 19 laid out how the idea moved. It said the third- and fourth-grade summer students worked with Roth after the 2023 crash to advocate for safer streets. Inspired by the moʻolelo of Kaʻelepulu Pond, their proposal went to Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services, the Kailua Neighborhood Board and the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts. The newsletter said each group supported and approved the proposal.
The students’ work happened beyond a drawing session. HIDOE said that on Aug. 5 the students visited Honolulu Hale and were recognized by the mayor’s culture office for their leadership and advocacy. Their role in presenting the design to civic bodies involved in the project gave the children a chance to bring a school-zone concern beyond the classroom.
The design draws on local land and stories, not a generic rainbow. Roth told Hawaii News Now that the students studied stories of Kailua and Kaʻelepulu. In the coverage, PTSA member Kate Chang pointed out portions organized as the mauka side, ʻāina in the median and makai side. HIDOE says the design was inspired by the moʻolelo of Kaʻelepulu Pond; this account leaves interpretation of those stories to the people who shared them.
Students could not paint on the road because it would not have been safe. Adults, including PTSA participants and family members, handled that part, while volunteers worked from the design students developed. Elijah Odhiambo, a volunteer stationed at Kaneohe Marine Corps base, told the station he wanted to help make the students’ vision real and bring out joy. The project joined student ideas, teachers, families, the artist and community volunteers in a place central to the school’s routine.
That process is the mural’s clearest achievement so far: a school concern framed by children traveled through meetings, approvals and a volunteer workday, rather than ending as a proposal. The sources show people coming to help and the design being installed; they do not say traffic was slower afterward. The distinction matters for road safety, which still depends on drivers paying attention as they pass through a school area.
The reporting establishes a student-led design, support from the school and civic offices, and a large volunteer effort to put it on the street. It also documents Van Lent’s family participating in a rainbow memorial near the crossing where she died. For people who use the intersection, the mural is a school-zone feature carrying both remembrance and a request to slow down. Whether it will change drivers’ behavior remains to be seen; the reporting to date establishes the community effort, not a safety outcome.
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