Flowers bloomed and spirits brightened on Oct. 26 at PS 197 in Far Rockaway, where students, families and staff teamed up with Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to breathe much-needed life back into the school grounds after Hurricane Sandy tore through the neighborhood last year. Many students and staff members at PS 197, which lost power and was displaced temporarily to another building, were deeply affected by Sandy. Some teachers lost homes; some students, forced to move in with relatives or friends in other states, never returned to the school. “The community was just split up,” says art teacher Chris Cesarani. When the flood waters ebbed and the power returned, staff members at the school wanted to take on a beautification project. But they lacked the funds until they received a grant from the Clinton Foundation, which also sent volunteers — among them Chelsea Clinton herself — to pitch in with the effort. To honor PS 197’s name, the “Ocean School,” Cesarani drew lighthearted murals featuring cheerful sea creatures on the school’s outdoor walls. Volunteers painstakingly painted them in bright blues and yellows, with Clinton adding a touch of gray to a smiling octopus. Elsewhere, teachers hefted shovels, dug holes and carefully set new trees into the ground, a welcome sight in a neighborhood still recovering from storm damage. “We wanted to bring some life back to the school,” Cesarani says. Judging by the grinning faces of students and teachers as they took paintbrushes to walls and flowers to pathways, they succeeded with flying colors.