Areas of downtown Sarnia and Mitton Village are looking a little more colourful thanks to a collaboration involving students at P.E. McGibbon Public School.
Vinyl wraps, featuring the artwork of 36 students, were recently installed on 10 traffic boxes.
Grade 7/8 Teacher Ryan Lounsbury said the Builders Club works closely with the Kiwanis Club of Sarnia-Lambton Golden K, looking for way to improve the school and local community. The project then took off after working closely with City of Sarnia staff.
Lounsbury said the Builders Club created a slideshow this past school year and shared it with all of the classrooms to brainstorm ideas of what Sarnia means to them.
In the end, 350 art pieces were submitted.
Lounsbury said the selected designs vary from sports teams to local landmarks.
"I just feel like so often, we kind of tell them what our community looks like and what's great about our community, so this kind of flipped the script," he told Sarnia News Today. "It gave them the chance to have the microphone and tell us what they think is great and how they see their community."
Lounsbury said he and his family recently had the opportunity to see the decorated traffic boxes.
"So pleasantly surprised with how it turned out, it was great! It really brightens up the street, which is nice," he said.
Lounsbury said he would like to see this initiative continue, perhaps with more schools in different areas of the city.
“The success of an initiative such as this is owed to the creativity of these students who stepped up to provide vibrant, and personalized artwork that will stand out in the community, alongside the school staff who are going above and beyond to lead the Builders Club program,” said City of Sarnia Manager of Development/Transportation Alister Brown in a media release. “As we continue to look at meaningful and impactful ways to add artwork into public spaces, we hope that these enhancements to otherwise ordinary infrastructure can create more opportunities to collaborate.”
Lounsbury said the Builders Club is mainly student-led, with guidance from himself and Karlie Best.
The club, which consists of 15 to 25 members, organizes fundraising events throughout the year to help with school trips, and recently donated $500 to St Joseph's Hospice Resource Centre Of Sarnia Lambton.
Decorated traffic boxes can be found at the intersections listed below:
• Devine Street and East Street
• Wellington Street and East Street
• Wellington Street and Russel Street
• Russel Street and Ontario Street
• Mitton Street, Wellington Street and Ontario Street
• Christina Street and Davis Street
• Christina Street and Cromwell Street
• Christina Street and Lochiel Street
• Front Street and Lochiel Street
