Deadline Met: The Soquel Bridge Will Have Mosaics by Mission Middle School Students

Artist and teacher Kathleen Crocetti sent a brief but enthusiastic note Thursday to the 87 backers who donated money to fund mosaics on the Soquel Bridge.

"We're ecstatic!" she wrote while on the road in New York for the National Art Educators Convention, where she is receiving the California Art Educator of the Year Award.

"Thank you so much to our 87 backers for a fantastic showing of support."

The project's deadline was March 1 and it needed $5,000 to begin.

She recorded the gleeful cheering of the students who will build the mosaics and will post it for all to hear when she returns, she said.

Donors and are invited to a brainstorming meeting and celebration at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History Tuesday March 20 from 4-5 p.m.

Last year the students put together a similar project on the Water Street Bridge, celebrating the animals of California.