Livingston Students Create Touching Tribute Rainbow For Classmate

Livingston, NJ – With one giant rainbow, Maya Rachel Cohen was again in the memory of the Livingston community.

Last week, students and staff at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School created a humongous rainbow photo in memory of their recently deceased classmate, Maya Rachel Cohen.

Through the effort, students are hoping to raise awareness about Maya's Rainbow Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to “nourishing the freeing messiness of creativity” by providing creative instruction and arts and crafts opportunities to children at Jewish Community Centers throughout the United States.

According to the nonprofit’s website, one of their first projects is to fund a new kind of creative space – “a re-imagination of the arts and crafts classroom” - called Maya’s Creative Studio at JCC MetroWest in West Orange, where Cohen attended preschool and kindergarten after-care.

Learn more about the organization here.

Maya’s father, Seth Cohen, created a GoFundMe campaign for his daughter in January, a “spunky, vivacious five-year-old who loved the Islanders, died suddenly of a rare and hidden heart condition in December.”

“Maya loved rainbows,” Cohen wrote. “From the time she could hold a crayon, there were rainbows everywhere: drawings, birthday cards, coloring-book animals, you name it. If Maya had been near a surface with art supplies, rainbows were the result. Every single thing she did had a rainbow on it… It was just who she was.”

“She painted Monet, Van Gogh, Warhol,” Cohen continued. “She did these amazing projects and she loved it. She took such pride in them and couldn’t wait to show us what she made. I really feel like the JCC is where Maya became Maya, so that’s the place that we want this memorial to live… She was a great kid who deserved to grow up.”

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Photo 1 by Jodi Rothfeld via Livingston Public Schools

Photo 2 via GoFundMe