Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Alumni Celebration: Debbie Evans, left, Sherry Rodriguez and husband Rob, not pictured, are working on a mural that will celebrate Willow Glen Middle School's 50th anniversary next month. The mural, made from the school's old gym floor, will feature names of past alumni surrounded by an engraved Plexiglass ram's head, the mascot of Willow Glen Middle School.
Mural Celebrates 50 Years at Willow Glen Middle School
By Melissa Matchak
What was once a piece of the gym floor at Willow Glen Middle School will soon adorn the wall of the gym with names of alumni.
The wood floor boards will feature the names of past students in commemoration of the school's 50th anniversary.
Approximately 360 names of alumni and current Willow Glen students have been carved into a 6-by-8-foot section of the old gym floor, which was pulled up in June 2000.
Sherry Rodriguez, a Willow Glen Middle alumna, asked for a piece of the old gym floor, so she could make something for her husband, who played basketball as a student on the floor. Rodriguez soon found herself planning a much larger project, with a much larger piece of the wood floor.
Rodriguez said the middle school principal, Lois Allen, knew she had worked on the tile mural commemorating Willow Glen Elementary School's 100th anniversary, and asked if she would do something similar for the middle school.
Last July, Rodriguez and her husband, along with her mother and a friend, began collecting names for the mural. Individuals purchased two lines of space, with 12 characters per line, in which they could include their name and years of attending the school, or whatever they could fit into that space. Rodriguez credits her husband, Rob, with the difficult task of creating a computer program that would allow them to place all the names on the mural so they would fit.
After using a stencil to pencil all the names on the floor boards, Rodriguez said they then used a routing machine to etch the hundreds of names into the wood. She said there is also a Plexiglas ram's head in the center of the mural, a tie-in to the school's mascot and color scheme.
At a special open house-like celebration on June 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the school's gym, the mural will be unveiled and hung on its wall. Rodriguez said the proceeds from the mural's creation will be used to buy safety mats on the walls around the basketball court. Individuals paid anywhere from $5 to $10 for their space on the mural, depending on when they purchased it. The public is welcome to attend the open house, refreshments will be served. For information, call Willow Glen Middle School at 408.535.6277.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
