THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9407150266
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
SIX-YEAR-OLD ELEANOR Kirk slapped some brown paint on the bottom of a pole in front of her school, Oakland Elementary in Chuckatuck, one day last week.
Painting was more fun than playing on the swings while her mother, Kitty Kirk, and a group of other volunteers worked, the second-grader had decided.
The assorted painters - amateurs drafted by Kirk - were sprucing up the school with colors and pictures depicting Oakland's new nickname, the Braves.
Last spring, the students voted to scrap the old nickname, the Beavers, and adopt the Braves out of respect for the local Nansemond Indians.
They chose a picture of a Brave on horseback for the logo.
When Kirk heard about the change, she coordinated an effort to brighten the school - inside and out - with splashes of color and Indian pictures.
First, she contacted the Rev. Elton Hall Jr., who had done some artwork for St. John's Episcopal Church.
Kirk persuaded Hall to draw pictures inside the main building and on the outside walls of the two mobile units that house kindergarten students.
Hall lives in Gates County, N.C., and works at the Thomas J. Lipton Inc. tea plant in Suffolk. He is pastor of Phillippi Baptist Church in Cofield, N.C., and also paints cars.
But he spent two days of vacation drawing the figures free-hand.
``He just kind of ad-libbed,'' Kirk said.
This week, Kirk's crew was busy adding color to Hall's pictures of an Indian, a teepee, a drum and a headdress. Each person had a different color - brown, black, white, turquoise or yellow - and moved from spot to spot.
Laura Sammons, a biology major at Virginia Tech and a part-time assistant at Oakland this summer, dabbed white paint around the Indian's eyeballs and on his teeth.
Her father and boss, John Sammons - Oakland's principal for six years - said the suggestion for using the Braves came from the fifth-graders. The choice was voted on by all the students - kindergarten through fifth grade.
Sammons had contacted local Nansemond tribe officials before the students considered adopting the Braves to make sure they didn't object.
The tribe has a yearly powwow at the end of August, just before school opens, at Lone Star Lodge at the end of Pembroke Lane across from the school.
Sammons said the tribe may schedule a powwow on the school grounds next spring.
Most of the painting will be completed before the students return for class in September, Kirk said.
And a local Boy Scout will paint the logo in the cafeteria later this summer to complete the requirements for his Eagle Scout badge.
During the school year, she hopes to get art students from Nansemond River High School to paint animal and bird prints on a turquoise strip at the top of the hallway walls.
``Over time, if we get really ambitious, we can add to it,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Eleanor Kirk, a second-grader at Oakland Elementary, paints a post
with the new school colors.
Drawing
One version of the Braves mascot.
by CNB