Chalk the Walk leaves trail of inspiration at Las Yescas school

Updated: February 6, 2021

By Tony Vindell

The staff and students at Las Yescas Elementary School found a different looking sidewalk last Wednesday.
Colorful messages left by members of the community adorned the concrete slab leading to the school main door.
Each and every display was put there by students and parents who participated in a campaign called Chalk the Walk set up by Chad Bresson, pastor with The Table of Los Fresnos church.
Nearly a dozen people showed up to the event and began working on the sidewalk, following Bresson’s instruction.
He said he wanted to give something back to the community and thanking the staff and teachers of one of the local school district schools that is the farthest from the main campus was a way of doing so.
“I have been looking for something to recognize our educators,” Bresson said while waiting for the participants who were told to show up at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27. “I found out about this on the Internet.”
He was referring to the Chalk the Walk, a campaign created in the late 1900s by the City of Iowa in which artists got together and painted inspirational messages on the sidewalk of that city’s downtown area.
Bresson said giving something back to the community is of one of the goals of the church he opened in Los Fresnos in 2019.
He said the Chalk the Walk event held outside Las Yescas school was to thank educators for the work they do and more so with today’s pandemic. Karina Gonzalez and her daughter Etzel were among the participants of last week’s campaign.
“We like it,” she said. “It’s nice to be recognized, particularly during these hard times.”
Las Yescas is located along FM 803 about 12 miles north of Los Fresnos.
The school is closer to the town of Rio Hondo and although its address is listed as being in San Benito it’s one of Los Fresnos School District’s farthest campuses built in 1955.