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UofL professor leads program to help rebuild Chinese school

By Bennett Haeberle, WDRB-TV Fox 41 News

It's been a little more than a year since a massive earthquake claimed nearly 70,000 lives in China. The devastation was broadcast all over the world.

Now, a UofL professor and a team of local children are trying to make a tangible donation. 

On Sunday, tucked away in an art studio at Bellarmine University, nearly two dozen parents, grandparents and children painted glaze on ceramic tiles.

Some drew dragons. Others smiley faces.

It's a school project of sorts. Or rather, a project for a school 7,000 miles away.

"We're painting tiles for the Chinese school," said Natalie Chou, who painted tiles.

"The earthquake was there and a lot of people died, and the school went down.  So we had to do this and stuff," said Matthew Chou, painted tiles.

A year ago, the Xiang-e (pronounced Shanger) school in Chengdu, China was destroyed by a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

More than 400 of the school's 500 children died when the concrete walls collapsed.

"We play a small part," said Wei-bin Zeng, UofL professor.

Zeng and a group of local philanthropists have raised $120,000 to rebuild the school through a Sister Cities partnership. The school is set to open later this year.

Through his efforts, he's assembled a group of local students from Kentucky and China to help create murals for the new classrooms.

The ceramic tiles will become part of a massive 24' X 8' ft. mural for the school devastated by the earthquake.

Zeng's dilemma is how to include images drawn by some of the survivors.  When asked to contribute, he received pictures from children, who drew collapsed buildings and dead bodies.

Right now, Zeng plans to use the survivors' images in a separate venue, displayed only on the anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the country.

Zeng hopes to have all the tiles finished by next week. The school is nearly complete and should be constructed by mid-July.