Livermore’s Arroyo Seco Elementary School can boast a diverse student population: an astronaut, a prizefighter, a famous artist, and a wind-up doll, among others. At least, that’s the way several of the school’s students were caricatured on June 2 during a visit by "Wee Pals" cartoonist Morrie Turner.
When Bay Area native Turner started producing “Wee Pals” in 1965, his creation became the first nationally syndicated comic strip featuring a multiracial cast. Since nearly the beginning, he has been visiting schools and talking with children about cartooning, respecting peoples’ differences, and the importance of reading and getting a good education. In a recent interview with the Rotary club, Morrie Turner said, "I try to encourage people to get along together and to understand other races and religions. It's very important right about now. We need to learn to live with diversity, not just tolerate it. There's room for all of us." Morrie’s humanitarian work has earned him a myriad of awards from groups including the Boys and Girls Club, the American Red Cross, the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and the California Education Association. He is also the subject of a documentary film, “Keeping the Faith with Morrie.”
Arroyo Seco students gave Morrie an enthusiastic welcome Monday, animatedly waving their hands to ask a question or request a portrait. During the school lunch period, a constant stream of students flowed through the library, where Morrie was on hand to talk to the children and sign copies of his latest book, which was offered at a discount by Goodenough Books. Additionally, children asked Morrie to draw on slips of scrap paper, books from home, clothing, their skin, an old “Wee Pals” lunch box, and even, in one case, an old shoe ready to be enshrined. Morrie obliged, admitting this was a first even for him.
Arroyo Seco principal Bette Vervais, immortalized by Turner as a whip and chair-bearing “Kid Tamer,” was thrilled with the school’s special visitor. “This is probably one of the best things we’ve ever brought here,” says Vervais, “because it provides children with the hope that they can achieve great things if they, as he said, just ‘practice, practice, practice.’ The kids need to understand that nothing’s going to come to them without trying.”
Dr. Vervais is not the only one currently lauding the achievements of Morrie Turner. Just a week prior to his Arroyo Seco visit, Turner was awarded the National Cartoonist Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and his work is currently the subject of a special exhibition at The Cartoon Art Museum, located on 655 Mission Street near the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. The exhibition, entitled “Keeping the Faith: The Life and Art of Morrie Turner,” will run through July 27. Livermore’s Goodenough Books Books is selling autographed copies of Turner’s 17th book, “Explore Black History with Wee Pals,” a collection of the comic strip including mini-biographies of achievers past and present.
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