Over spring break, Amador’s campus beautification project was officially set into motion. Student and parent volunteers worked with the Amador staff who’d headed the project and helped complete the new signage being added to the fences around school.
“About five, six years ago, I was over at Cal High and noticed how they had signage everywhere. Their campus was older, but it looked really good with all the banners and signs. And I thought those would look really good on Amador,” said Wendy Connelly, who’d first pitched the beautification project.
The project idea came up years ago, and more recently, PTSA started the campus beautification program to gather funds.
“We’re trying to make this campus look nicer. I think people just feel happy when they see something aesthetic. You look at it and think ‘oh, that’s cool,’ versus seeing something not so spirited. We just wanted to jazz it up a bit,” said Kelly Cantu, Amador’s Secretary of School Attendance and PTSA member.
Leadership also joined in on the project and is planning to add new mosaic tiles along with the new light post banners that will add pops of color to the campus.
“The banners will make campus feel more spirited, and it’ll make students feel more homey. It’d be nice if they encourage students to be more spirited themselves, too,” said Bella Vollgraf (‘24), ASB Vice-President.
Getting to work
After the program finally got approval, funds, and materials, all that was left was actually implementing the new signage.
“For the work done over spring break, we had whoever who would come in to help. There were a couple kids and a couple parent volunteers, plus Mrs. Cantu and I. We worked for four days over break. Doing ‘Go Dons’ the first day surprisingly took the longest, because figuring out how the cups worked took time. But by the time we got to the end, we were going so fast,” said Connelly.
The project required countless steps and involved many people to complete. And now, even more are anticipating the final results since the beautification process officially started this past break.
“I was in charge of getting things approved and I worked with Mrs. Connelly on the designs. And personally, I think the project’s timing is really nice because of what’d happened to the small gym recently. This beautification program will kind of offset that,” said Dwight Pratt, Amador’s Coordinator of Operations.
Since the Centennial celebration also took place earlier this school year, now is a good time to spruce up campus with fence signage, flag banners, carpets, and mosaics.
“All the signs are kind of reinforcing how we are at Amador, and reinforcing our school spirit with all the purple,” said Kacie Hu (‘24), ASB President.
Those who contributed to the project enjoyed seeing their hard work put into action. And many more are excited to decorate campus with Amador’s colors and themes.
“The goal is to try to make our 100-year-old campus look as good as the students, teachers, administrators, and everything else on the inside. We’re really fortunate that PTSA got us all this money for campus beautification. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this,” said Connelly.
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There are plans to add one more large sign saying “Home of the Dons” along the baseball field’s fence facing the Santa Rita parking lot.
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The banners are designed to boost school spirit and solidify the school community with purple and gold.
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Another of the banner designs serves to remind students of Amador Valley’s morals and values.
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