PHOTOS: Kids help paint owls along Owl’s Head playground gate

Gearing up for summer, the Owl’s Head Park Horticulture Group asked children ages three to 10 to come help paint a very special part of the park on two separate Saturdays this month.

The group gathered once on May 6 and again on May 20 (the latter a rain-date for May 13 that ended up coinciding with the 17^th annual Viking Fest, also in Owl’s Head Park) to paint the metal cut-out owls along the gate of the children’s playground.

“It went great,” said volunteer Susan Frances, noting that children came from as far as Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay to help paint owls after their parents saw news of the event being spread on Facebook. “I think the kids really enjoyed it. Some of them were hesitant about drawing pictures but, once they got into it, they wanted to do more and more.”

This was not the first time kids came out to paint the owls of Owl’s Head, Frances said.

“We had first done this workshop back in June, 2015,” said the volunteer, noting that the first set of owls ever painted was behind the swing-set inside the playground. “We had three more owls that were getting rusted so we said, why don’t we finish the other owls?”

The project, Frances said, serves more than one purpose.

“The goal is not only to let the kids paint the owls and contribute to their park but also to learn something,” she said, noting that each set of owls has its own geometric shape that children were encouraged to design — hexagons, diamonds and squares. “So we’re hoping that the kids can also get familiar with shapes as well as with drawing.”

During the workshops, both of which took place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., kids jumped at the chance to get their hands on some brushes and get to work. The pint-sized Picassos successfully painted a handful of panels on the owl silhouettes along the gate – each one different from the next.

“I hope that more kids decide to contribute in some way to their park,” said Frances, encouraging any parents with ideas on how to get their children more involved to contact the group by e-mail at owlsheadvolunteers@earthlink.net or online at Facebook.com/OwlsHeadVolunteers. “I think it’s really important to get the community involved in helping parks like Owl’s Head.”