By Cassie Lennox

“I call dibs on blue.”

“Come over here and draw pants, I’ll work on the arms.”

“This horse is going to be so good.”

Students at Madison Elementary in Stevens Point join art teacher Sandra Ticknor in painting the Madison Elementary slogan, mustang mascot and students on the blade of a snow plow that will be zoned in their district all winter long.

“Can I take my shoes off? I paint better with my shoes off.”

These were a few among many comments made by children at Madison Elementary in Stevens Point as they painted their unique designs onto a Stevens Point city snow plow for the first “Paint the Plow” project Tuesday, Sept. 19.

Local public elementary schools teamed up with the City of Stevens Point in the beginning of September to launch the project, which concluded last week.

Students at Madison, Jefferson, McKinley, Washington and Bannach elementary schools were asked to paint the blade of a snow plow truck that will be used for snow removal this winter.

The schools had the freedom to paint creative designs of their choice, so each plow has a design special and unique to the elementary school that created it.

All five snow plows will be featured in the Thanksgiving Holiday Parade for the community to see. In addition, the painted plows will each be used this winter on roads that include the school’s neighborhood, so students will be able to see their masterpieces at work.

Students at Madison Elementary donned their oversized painting shirts and joined art teacher Sandra Ticknor, who outlined a general design for them and then oversaw them bring the painting to life. Older students worked on larger paintings and mixed paint colors for the younger students. The younger students were in charge of tracing letters and painting people.

“They are doing such a great job,” Ticknor said while overseeing the painting students. “It looks really good.”

Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza said a clear coat will be applied to each of the plows’ blades to preserve the newly-completed artwork.

“The salt may chip away at the paint a little bit, but other areas that do this program have done the clear coat, and it seems to work pretty well,” he said.

If the paint does end up chipping away at the end of the winter season, that’s just another good reason to have students paint again next year, Wiza said.

Students at Madison Elementary in Stevens Point join art teacher Sandra Ticknor in painting the Madison Elementary slogan, mustang mascot and students on the blade of a snow plow that will be zoned in their district all winter long.
(Portage County Gazette photo)

Students at Madison appeared to have a lot of fun, calling dibs, then sharing spots, mixing paints, laughing and taking ownership of their blade, their work and supporting one another.

If all goes well this year, Wiza anticipates expanding the program to other schools in the future.

“This is something we just decided to try, but I can definitely see it expanding all over the county,” he said.

Each plow will be zoned to work around the school that painted it so that the students will be able to see their artwork all winter.

The paint and supplies used for the project was purchased through a $500 donation from Frank’s Hardware, Stevens Point.

The idea was inspired by an article read by Assistant Superintendent of Streets Luke Kronstedt, who approached Wiza with the project concept.

“I wanted to do something that got the kids involved and thought this would be a fun project for them,” Kronstedt said. “If it’s successful and we continue to get the support, we’ll try to do it every year.”

The program kicked off with city employees, students and faculty on Friday, Sept. 8.