LYNN — While the city is vying to replace the dilapidated, 103-year-old Pickering Middle School, four of its students took the initiative to make some much needed improvements to one of the girls’ bathrooms.
Eighth graders Kaleigh Bullock, Hannah Desilets, Karla Lux Ven and Brenna Zahine, who are part of Pickering’s Student Leadership Team, were recognized for their efforts with citations from both Mayor Thomas M. McGee and the Lynn City Council last week.
“I was really proud of them,” said Dena Coffey, a school guidance counselor and the team’s assigned teacher. “They worked really hard and it was nice for them to get the recognition. It was all their idea, all their work.
The girls spent their Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend brightening up one of the school’s main bathrooms with new paint. To add some flair, they selected motivational quotes that were painted onto the eight bathroom stalls, which Lux Ven, 14, hopes will provide encouragement to students who may be feeling down.
The empowering messages, such as the school’s slogan, “Dream big, work hard;” and others like “Positive vibes only;” and “Your mistakes don’t define you;” are a vast improvement over the bad words that had previously been written all over the bathroom, said Bullock, 13.
In addition to recognizing its impact on students, the girls said that negativity wasn’t the message they wanted their school to project to visitors, as the bathroom is heavily used by people who attend events at the school. This led Bullock and Lux Ven to pitch the restoration idea to their leadership team.
“Since people come to our school for plays or concerts, we don’t want them to see bad words on our stalls,” said Bullock. “We want them to think of our school as a good school.”
The four girls will be graduating from Pickering this year, but Desilets, 13, said they wanted to ensure current and future students have a positive bathroom.
It may be a small improvement, but the impact has been great.
“A little bit goes a long way,” said Zahine, 13.
Coffey agreed, saying the project has done wonders for the school’s morale. Their efforts have inspired the boys to want to restore one of their own bathrooms and if their budget allows, the girls plan to repaint others in a similar fashion.
“It really did lift everyone’s spirits,” said Coffey. “The school community, the parent response was awesome. People just got an uplift.”
At last week’s City Council meeting, McGee and Councilor-at-Large Brian LaPierre praised the girls’ efforts, which came shortly after the city submitted a statement of interest to the state for a new Pickering Middle School.
“You’ve made the bathroom really stand out and we need to do more of this, refurbishing what is a (103)-year-old middle school,” said LaPierre.
McGee congratulated the students for being leaders in their school, but “more importantly,” taking on that role in their community.
