Families of Davis High School and all of the middle and elementary schools that “feed” students into Davis are invited to a free family day at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to celebrate “Dia de los Muertos” from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 31, 2004.

Free transportation and admission to the museum is available to students enrolled in a Project GRAD school in the Davis feeder pattern (Davis High School, Marshall Middle School, Jefferson Elementary, Ketelsen Elementary, Looscan Elementary, C. Martinez Elementary, Ryan Elementary, and Sherman Elementary School). To find out more details or to sign up, please contact your school or Lisa Hooten, Director of the Fine Arts Program, Project GRAD Houston at (713) 228-3100.

“Dia de los Muerto” or the Day of the Dead is one of Mexico’s biggest and most festive holidays. Believing that ancestral spirits influence the world of the living, the people of Mexico have built altars to honor the dead for centuries. This year artist Lisa Hernandez will build an altar dedicated to the memory of the women who took up arms in the Mexican Revolution (Soldaderas). The performance will start at 3:00 p.m. Activities include sculpting a clay skull, creating a mask, designing a papel picado, face painting, exploring the museum, listening to stories and more. Costumes are welcome.

Project GRAD Houston is a nonprofit pre-k through 16 school reform model serving over 48,000 students in 71 public schools in H.I.S.D. Over the last decade, 2,050 students have enrolled in college using the Project GRAD Houston Scholarship.

Founded by Jim Ketelsen, former CEO of Tenneco, the program was initiated in H.I.S.D. in 1993-1994, and has a proven track record of increasing graduation rates and improving student academic success. Project GRAD now serves 133,000 students nationally in 217 schools in Akron, Atlanta, Brownsville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Kenai Peninsula, Knoxville, Lorain, Los Angeles, Newark, and Roosevelt, New York.