Group effort delivers a sign for school

LAURA BECK

December 03, 2008 at 9:38AM AKST

Seward Middle School needed a sign to let everyone know whose building it was. It also needed a reader board to communicate events and news. 

But how to make this happen?

Last school year, I wrote to Holland America Line and asked for two $500 grant offerings. 

The school was later awarded $1,000 to split between the mural project slated for the gym and an outdoor sign carved by the kids.

The murals took priority since our gym was really in need of an identity. Students had an opportunity to paint a square and leave their mark on the walls. A large Seward Silver fish was painted on the wall and Kenai Peninsula Borough School District mascots were also painted to welcome incoming teams to our school. 

In February, we used the Holland America Line money to purchase yellow cedar, and the high school shop class planed the cedar and bolted it together. Melanee Stevens from the Qutekcak Native tribe and her father, Leo Kunnuk volunteered their time to teach the students how to carve the cedar. Dedicated students spent weekends, after school time and coveted summer hours carving to finish the project. 

Joe Hinton, a local commercial fisherman, donated the two upright logs; Metco delivered the concrete for the walls and John Beck led the construction with help from Principal Trevan Walker and school custodians Bob Duesman and Stephen Dudley.  Borough maintenance man John Grimes came over to help on his day off to finish the concrete work.

The project took 10 months and three years of student help to finish. Painting was the easy part, but there was worry that the enamel paint wouldn’t wear well outside. Enter Leonard Huffman of Seward Auto Body & Paint, who donated the clear coat on the sign to seal the work. A small work crew of Beck, Walker and Dudley managed to secure the very heavy sign to the concrete wall, attach the metal reader board and cover the sign in a blue tarp for the grand unveiling. 

Last Thursday, the student body and adults who helped stood outside in the numbing cold and unveiled the student-made sign. It is a beautiful thing to behold, “Seward Middle School, Home of the Silvers!” painted in large letters. Silver salmon swim across the bottom and Seward’s snowcapped mountains peak at the top. 

The lighted reader board will be connected the next time a borough electrician comes back to Seward.

Student and adults can look upon this masterpiece of cedar and paint and be proud of how the sign turned out. 

In the spring, when it is warmer, a rock wall will be put around the grey concrete so the Silver Salmon look like they’re swimming over the rocks. 

Seward Middle School would like to thank everyone for their talents and gifts for making this task successful. 

The sign is located near the front of the middle school where parents drop off their kids. Come on by and take a look.

Laura Beck teaches eighth grade and coaches/leads a variety of sports and activities at Seward Middle School.

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