"Miss Paula" Ciavolino has a lot on her plate.

A mother of three sharing Key West bills with her musician husband Ritchie, this children's advocate faces the same pressures as most people scraping by in this town. Injuries sustained in a car accident a few years back didn't help.

But this optimistic and energetic woman is adept and enthusiastic about facing life's challenges especially when they involve the youngest citizens of Monroe County.

When Ciavolino, the Brooklyn-born founder and executive director of the Just 4 Kids charitable organization, heard that the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority wanted her "kids" to decorate the fire hydrants of Monroe County, she leaped at the chance.

"I got a call from the FKAA, because they liked the murals the kids had done all over town," said Ciavolino, who draws no salary from J4K. "We've done about 125 so far, and we've got about 40 more to do in Key West, and a stretch from Sugarloaf Key through Marathon. Last week we did Plantation Key through Key Largo."

Eventually Ciavolino, who has lived in Key West for 16 years, anticipates her charges will have painted some 300 hydrants throughout the island chain. Of the 945 in the county, Paula and J4K board member Elizabeth Calleja scoped out many of them and determined which ones would be the best candidates for a face-lift.

"They had to be in decent condition, and in safe places, not construction zones or in really out-of-the-way places," Ciavolino said. "I was driving up the Keys last week, and I could see the newest ones on the sides of the road and they looked really terrific. We tried to do hydrants that would be visible."

Miss Paula has been involved with helping kids for years. She's been honored by the likes of Art Against Graffiti, a project of the Keep America Beautiful organization, as well as the City of Key West, for her efforts. Mostly she concerns herself with organizing creative after-school activities for youth at the Fort Street home of the Bahama Village Music Program, and organizing drives to make sure that students in the Keys have all the school supplies they need. It's a consuming task that takes up most of her time.

Still, when the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority approached her about the hydrant project, she didn't hesitate.

"Some people said 'you're going to need an adult artist to coordinate this whole thing, but I told them 'No,'" Ciavolino said. "I had absolute faith in the children. I told them the kids would be perfect. I really wanted the kids to be the focus of the whole project, because I knew that they'd just shine."

So Ciavolino committed to the venture. She sent out 8-1-2" x 11" paper template application forms to every student in Monroe County, kindergarten through high school, soliciting their creative ideas occasionally with unintended results.

"A lot of them came back painted all red . . . or solid pink," she said with a laugh. "But we did end up with 2,000-plus returns altogether. Then we set up a committee to judge the entries, anonymously of course."

Surprisingly, for such a huge undertaking, the project has come together rather quickly. The initial Key West phase was accomplished in just two hours, from 10 in the morning to noon, on Oct. 13 of last year. The kids, all accompanied by supportive parents and friends, assembled at Key West High School and fanned out across town to put their stamp on hydrants from Bahama Village to the Cow Key Channel. In a well-coordinated second surge on April 28, students from Plantation Key through Key Largo left their colorful imprints on the utilitarian spigots. As of yesterday, Sugarloaf to Marathon should be covered as well. A few remaining Key West sites will be tended to some time in June. Ciavolino's Key West Art Center is now looking for sponsors for the colorful fire plugs.

Ciavolino is also receiving inquiries from arts organizations in Orlando and Dallas, who are considering following her lead and creating similar civic arts projects of their own. The idea, it seems, is a hit.

For Ciavolino, though, this endeavor like others she has undertaken really is just for kids.

"They had a ball," she said. "And it was so nice to see all the families come together. It's such a nice boost of confidence for them."

An open house to showcase the J4K hydrants will be held Saturday, May 19, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Key West Art Center, 727 B= Fort St. For more information, call 305-731-9858. To view more hydrants online, visit www.keysnews.com-galleries-hydrants-index.htm