Arizona Republic, June 2006

Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)
June 30, 2006

VOLUNTEERS BRING COLOR TO HOSPITAL WALLS Author: Produced by Hal Mattern, The Arizona Republic; Contributor: Dawn Gilbertson

Section: Business Page: D2

Things are looking brighter for the young patients at Los Ninos Hospital in Phoenix. Last Saturday, more than 100 volunteers from Southwest Ambulance and the Phoenix law firm of Lewis and Roca painted brightly colored murals on the hospital's dreary walls.

"The intent was to bring peace and beauty to the hospital," said Kristin Ellermann, a lawyer at Lewis and Roca and coordinator of the event.

Los Ninos serves mostly socially disadvantaged infants and youngsters. The infants in recovery are being weaned from drug addictions and treated for other disabilities. They frequently are placed in foster care after recovering.

Ellermann said that when officials of Southwest Ambulance, one of her clients, discovered that she was an artist, they asked if she could paint a mural at the hospital. Because the job was too big for one artist, she enlisted the help of John Manross, of Designs by Manross, who drew outlines of the mural for volunteers to fill in, sort of like painting by numbers.

When the painting was finished, it looked like a different place, Ellermann said. "Some of the nurses were crying. They said it turned out better than they had expected. Then some of the workers got all teary. It was a wonderful experience."

DESIGNS by MANROSS
940 S. Park Lane, Suite 4
Tempe, AZ 85281
John Manross
602-721-5103