EVERETT — A group of local middle school students helped propose, design and paint two murals outside of their campus in an effort to celebrate their neighborhood and combat graffiti in the surrounding area.

Outside of Voyager Middle School, located just south of Everett city limits in unincorporated Snohomish County, colorful murals now cover two fences that were frequent targets for graffiti tagging. In 2024, students had secured funding for paint to cover some of the graffiti, but it returned shortly after, said Annamarie Jordan, a seventh grade teacher at the middle school.

Along with the graffiti tags, the area lacks green spaces and is prone to overgrowth along its sidewalks that run alongside 4th Avenue, a busy high-speed road, Jordan said. But the students had hoped to show the positive nature of their community and recognize the diverse neighborhood they live in, they wrote in a creative brief shared with The Daily Herald. Students then decided to try their hand at painting a mural, in an effort for a longer-lasting barrier to prevent further graffiti in the area.

“We feel that by partnering with community artists, collaborating on the design of this project, and creating this beautiful and powerful representation of our community, our community will see their reflections in the art and feel the great sense of pride we all deserve to feel in our communities,” the students wrote in the brief.

But the mural would cost money. Jordan sent an email to the city of Everett’s mayor, Cassie Franklin, asking if her students could present the idea to her. Franklin said yes, the students made their case, and the mayor agreed to provide $7,500 for the project to the Bunker Arts Collective, an Everett nonprofit that cleans trash and creates murals throughout the city. The nonprofit ran the youth engagement process, the artist selection, cleanups and installation of the murals.

Along with coming up with the idea for the murals, students made nearly all of the creative decisions, as well as helping paint them and clean the surrounding area.

In a statement, Franklin said she was inspired by the students’ “passion, creativity and commitment to improving their community.”

“One of my priorities as Mayor is creating meaningful opportunities for young people to shape the future of Everett,” she wrote. “This project is a perfect example of what’s possible when we listen to youth voices and empower them to take action.”

Jordan said her students were pleasantly surprised to see the enthusiastic support for the project.

“I think they felt like they were heard and that their voices mattered, that people were listening,” Jordan said. “… Their voices have been centered through this whole process, and I think that’s been really inspiring for them.”

The mural was designed by Mohamed Kujabi, an Everett artist. Originally from The Gambia, a small West African country, Kujabi moved to the city in 2025 and heard about the project a few months ago through a Facebook post. He worked with students to come up with a design, which features musical notes “flowing through time,” Kujabi said, along with hearts in the color of a variety of skin tones and messages of support from students.

“It was an interesting process because I had to put myself in their minds, in their shoes,” Kujabi said Monday. “… This has to do with diversity, inclusivity, so I wanted to include everyone from any background that can walk here and see themselves.”

There is still some work to be done on the two 60-foot-long murals, Kujabi said. They will likely be complete in the next few weeks.

The head of the Bunker Arts Collective, Evan Reed, allowed the students to vote on the local artist who would design and help paint the murals. They, with the permission of property owners, also helped pick up trash and paint over graffiti on fences across the section of 4th Avenue where the murals were set to be painted. Snohomish County public works crews, along with a local landscaping company, helped clear overgrowth along the corridor.

The nonprofit will maintain the murals and nearby fences for six months at no cost to the property owners, Reed said.

“I just feel like it was a great experience for the students to be able to understand you can advocate for change without going scorched earth, you can make meaningful differences in your community by doing small things,” Reed said. “It does not have to be these massive policy changes on a national level. You can make a real impact in your neighborhoods, in your school and positively impact your peers, your families, the neighbors.”

Reed said he hoped the mural could serve as an opportunity for local officials to think about other ways the corridor could be made more safe and inviting so graffiti tags and overgrown weeds don’t return to the area.

For Jordan and her students, the murals were a way inspire the neighborhood and paint a picture of the variety of people who live and work in that area of unincorperated Snohomish County.

“I think one of the biggest parts of this project is that it’s easy to walk through or drive down 4th, see the graffiti and make assumptions about the people who live here, work here and go to school here, and that’s just not it,” Jordan said. “The people who live here, work here, go to school here are brilliant and diverse, and we want to celebrate that.”

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.