Students do project to mark Holocaust
Middle school students at Pacific Ridge School recently embarked on The Butterfly Project, an installation art project memorializing the deaths of 1.5 million Jewish children during the Holocaust, as their service learning project. Carlsbad resident Shoshana Lehrer, class of 2021, helped bring this project to Pacific Ridge as her Senior Signature, with Encinitas resident Brooklyn Borts, class of 2025, introducing it to the middle school. “I love the idea of creating something so beautiful and meaningful from an event that was such a tragic loss,” Shoshana said. “Our school is devoted to diversity and inclusion, so I thought this would be a perfect project to introduce.” Students from the eighth grade each received a biography card representing a different child who died in the Holocaust and painted a butterfly — in silence — in honor of their child’s story. They then shared the names of the children they were honoring with their fellow group members. The butterflies will be glazed and finished through the summer, then displayed on campus, with more butterflies being added each year.