When it comes to murals, Kathy Banzon is well versed.

A first-year site coordinator for the tutorial program, Give Every Child a Chance, she recently had 33 students from her Garden / Mural Club complete the first mural at Lincoln School.

They’re also part of GECAC’s free After School Advantage Programs or ASAP.

Banzon, who had a hand with the pattern of the mural – however, she noted that the students were the ones who brainstormed the idea and the design – was especially proud of the finished product done in exterior acrylic latex paints.

“It turned out better than I ever imagined,” she said on Friday. “They really stepped up and rose to the occasion.”

Since early September, the after-school group spent a few hours every Friday working on the mural on the wall adjacent to the school garden. Among the regulars were Ariana and Liana Perez, Samanta and Sophia Cerritos, Jose Lopez, Zeya Skelton, Alyssia Ruiz-Arroyo, Eduardo Medina, Luis Cerpas, and Kevin Lin.

Banzon said GECAC helped finance about $100 from program money for the mural – at least enough to purchase paint brushes and drop clothes – with the other half being donated from staff members and parents.

Staff members, for example, contributed six gallons of exterior acrylic-latex paints.

Banzon has helped out around town with the Manteca Mural Society, with her most notable contribution on the Dave Gordon and Pete Evaristo mural at 145 N. Main St. entitled “Pumpkin Harvest.”

A 2003 graduate of Manteca High, Banzon, who was formerly Kathy Buchanan, did five murals on the MHS Mural Museum while a student for the recently retired Kirt Giovannoni.

“Many of our students will be going to MHS from here and I’m hoping this (mural) will inspire them to continue taking art classes,” she said.

Banzon is also hopeful that the GECAC mural will become the first of many at Lincoln School.