By Alissa Von Bargen
When she arrived at Lisgar Collegiate in January, new principal Patricia Irving thought the staff and programs were good, but the school itself was dingy and dull-looking. With the school’s 160th anniversary approaching, she suggested a sprucing up of the school to celebrate.
“We wanted to restore it to its former glory,” says Irving.
The school budget allows for structural repairs, but there was no money for cosmetic upkeep.
So Irving looked for volunteers to help renovate. She found one at a school council meeting. Shelley Pearen, an interior designer, volunteered her services and five friends for one of the projects Irving had in mind.
“We’re just a group of women who’ve painted before and we have kids about to enter or in the school now,” says Pearen. She has one child in Grade 11, and another entering Grade 9 next year.
Their project was to transform a plain white room into a boardroom where staff and students can make presentations and hold meetings. Pearen and her friends did the labour using paint that Irving supplied, and their own tools from home.
“All of it was done on a shoestring budget, nothing expensive,” says Irving.
But for the volunteers who helped renovate, the opportunity to contribute to the community was a more important reason to help than the lack of school funds.
“We would do this no matter how much money they have. I’d rather they spend it on new textbooks and teachers. I think it’s good for parents to get involved in the schools,” says Pearen.
Wendy Bennett has a child in Grade 9, and helped with the painting.
“I don’t think the money is the reason we’re here. It’s a community project we wanted to get involved in,” she says.
Pearen thinks having a professional boardroom is important to the school, especially for preparing students for work situations.
“If the environment takes you seriously and you have people around you, it’s a little more practical, more like real life.”
The boardroom is now painted a sky blue with borders, framed with student art and a newly refinished table.
Irving was amazed by the transformation.
“It’s really stupendous,” she says. “You should have seen it before. There was a yellow and brown mottled rug and a mural from the ‘60s.”
Irving says students helped build and refinish furniture and other odd jobs. Some of the students helped out to complete mandatory community service hours as part of their curriculum. But Irving says many wanted to help out regardless.
“It instills pride,” she says. “What they’ve done is just amazing.”
Other projects in the works at Lisgar include student murals in the hallways, more seating in the library, and a washroom decorating challenge. Four teams of students will spend a day painting four washrooms in the school with different themes, similar to the challenges on television decorating shows.
“We want the kids to take pride in the school and not mark it up,” says Irving.
The washroom challenge will take place on March 22.