Roosevelt High School Japanese Garden, Teachers and Alumni
I spent the better part of the day at Roosevelt High School with a Reconnective Healer named Lenzy Stuart who actually taught me to play basketball when we attended RHS, together.
I picked him up in the morning and we spent all morning in the Japanese Garden where we saw and spoke to people about the role that Lenzy played for over 2 years as the campus healer. We discovered that he had been missed and this visit has started his return to the school for a new school year. Teachers and several of the sports teams scheduled for him to setup is table in the weight room.
The Japanese Garden is a special place which was re-created initially by the students in the early 1990's in an effort to commemorate the original RHS Japanese Garden from the mid 1930's.which was destroyed during because of the war with Japan. Another alumni Bruce Kaji who founded the Japanese American National Museum of LA came along and raised funds to upgrade the garden in 1996. Then Shideo Takayama, president of the Japanese Club from the 30's who created the initial RHS Japanese Garden visited from Japan in 2003 for the first time since he graduated in the 30's. He financed yet another renovation and upgrade to the garden including adding the upper and lower ponds
I also spent time talking to the Health Teacher who both Lenzy and I worked with on the first annual school health fair in 2008. Title 1 coordinator asked me to help with the school website http://rooseveltlausd.org Related Link