Cicero is celebrating the completion of a community mural created by a group of students who used the project to show their dreams for a better community.

The completion of the mural was recognized in an unveiling ceremony at the Cicero community center Friday, June 19. The unveiling was held in conjunction with a family health day, put on by Corazon Community Services, as part of the Cease Fire Week.

The health fair offered free screening for HIV and other diseases, and provided education on disease prevention, said William Torres, community outreach liaison for Corazon.

He said the main objective of Cease Fire Week was to end violence, but the idea of family safety and health also was incorporated.

Milton Coronado, a local artist, has worked with youths to create other murals throughout Cicero in the past years, in cooperation with Corazon. This year he helped students create two murals.

The canvas mural was unveiled at the community center Friday, June 19, as well as a wall mural near Cicero and Ogden Avenues.

“With the first one, in 2007, we got some awesome, awesome feedback,” Coronado said. “It seems like they always want to do another one.”

Students spent two weeks drawing and painting their designs onto the six panels of the 8-by-24 foot mural. They did most of their work in the lobby of Town Hall so other community members could be made aware of the project. The completed mural will be displayed in Town Hall.

“We usually see people look at it,” said Morton East High School senior Fernando Caldera. “They seem surprised because we’re young and are working on a big project like this.”

The conversations about the mural were positive, and many viewers voiced their own interest in art, Coronado said.

The students’ individual designs are incorporated into the mural in the leaves of a large tree where they depict their dreams for a better community and a better world.

Azucena Medrano, a Morton East graduate, chose to focus her design on gun control; her painting is of a gun being traded in for a gift certificate.

“You hear all about gun violence, and it would be better if gun violence would be reduced,” Medrano said.

Some of the designs are specific to Cicero, such as the one by Morton East graduate Victor Lule, who’s picture shows graffiti being painted over by a wall mural. He said it shows how something negative, like graffiti, can be turned into a positive.

Others focus on the bigger picture outside of Cicero. Pamela Pozos, a Morton East graduate, said the message of her design is for people to respect the earth and be active in protecting the environment.

“I wanted something to be creative, to be symbolic,” Pozos said. “At the same time, it’s not just about Cicero, everyone should be aware.”

Caldera said he volunteered to work on the mural because he wanted to experience something new, and to work with others.

“If we all try we can actually change Cicero and make it a better place,” he said.