Adnkronos Milan, April 4 (Adnkronos) – A wave of color, solidarity and participation is crossing the Leonardo Da Vinci primary school in Milan thanks to 'The invisible forest', a project promoted by the parents' association 'Amici della Leonardo' and carried out in collaboration with the association 'We Are Urban! Milano', which has already completed it in fourteen schools. The goal is simple, but very powerful: improve the quality of the air and school environments by repainting all 36 classrooms in use in the institute with Airlite, a special paint that purifies the air, permanently eliminates mold and bacteria and improves daily livability.
The project is involving over 200 parents and volunteers, determined to donate, in the first two weekends of April, time, energy, arms and good will to paint the school of over 700 children, which is also a point of reference for the entire Città Studi area with its over 90 years of history. The expected result? Healthier, cleaner and more welcoming classes for students and teachers: "The invisible forest is a project that transforms the school, but also the community that lives there - explains the headmaster of the Leonardo Da Vinci school, Antonio Re -. Not just repainted walls, but relationships that are strengthened, educational alliances that grow and a concrete example of active citizenship".
"We want it to be first and foremost a moment of aggregation - explains the parents' association Amici della Leonardo, which coordinated the project and financed most of it -. We put everyone's skills to good use in the organization and we bet on the desire to reinvent themselves as painters for a few hours for the realization. We discovered a strong sense of community that was waiting for the right project to emerge".
The initiative is being carried out with the support of Wau! Milano, an association that promotes the care of the common good, including the resource 'air', through the direct participation of citizens. "We are happy to have met all the students of the school for an educational moment that promotes the culture of the common good starting from the importance of a vital element that we do not see and that we should not feel - comments Andrea Amato, president of Wau! Milano -. A project that must be explained to better understand the value of a gesture of volunteering that has many positive aspects".
Among the supporters of the project, there is also YesMilano, the promotion agency of the Municipality, which has embraced Il Bosco Invisibile as a virtuous example of integration and territorial activation: "We have involved our network of international students, over 11.000 in Milan, to show how community projects are an extraordinary bridge of integration - says the general director of YesMilano, Fiorenza Lipparini -. Il bosco invisibile is a model to be told and replicated". Also in love with the project is the Officine Rousseau association (an educational reality historically recognized between Milan and the province as the former cooperative Centri Rousseau since 1968) which has decided to give support to the project Bosco invisibile degli Amici della Leonardo by giving away two hours of activities in the school park for the children of the volunteers.
The contribution of local sponsors and partners was also fundamental. Vittoria Pirovano of Leonardo Frontero-Frontero Case, chose to support the initiative with a financial contribution: "We believed in the strength of this project right from the start. It is rare to see so much enthusiasm, concreteness and positive impact in a single initiative. It was natural to want to support it". Even the local bakers, from Viale Romagna to Piazza Piola, wanted to participate, donating trays of pizza and focaccia for the painting days, while the Carrefour in Via Spinoza offered drinks and snacks for those with special dietary needs, demonstrating its consolidated elective affinity with the students of all ages who populate Città Studi. The project, carried out in the first two weekends of April, transforms the Leonardo Da Vinci school into a concrete example of collaboration between families, institutions, associations and local businesses. An invisible forest that has made the strength of a united community visible.