Merrimack High School seniors will have personalized parking spots when school resumes next week – parking spots they designed and painted on Wednesday. The event began as a senior class fundraiser and became a community builder.
Senior Ariana Costa spent so much time looking for parking last year, she was often tardy. She and classmate Ben Fong had an idea: For $50, seniors could claim, design, and paint their own parking spot. The money would help pay for senior year events.
Costa remembers thinking: “We are all a very close class. We have to be here, we have to do this and we have to go all out.”
Their teachers and principal liked the idea but district officials said no, citing various concerns.
Costa and Fong persisted, gathering more information to address those concerns. They took their enhanced proposal to the new superintendent, Bob Thompson, who started July 1.
“I think I had the easy job,” Thompson said. “All I did was say yes.”
Dozens of students, parents, teachers, and community members showed up at Merrimack High School early Wednesday morning with paint in every color. Costa chose blue and white stripes and the letter A – for her first name. Fong went with a hurdle, a nod to his time with the track team.
Fong looked around the parking lot while he waited for his base coat to dry. “It kind of brings a tear to your eye that all these people showed up today and we're all one big community," he said.
The designs had to comply with the school’s policy, which prohibits profanity, intolerance, violence, and drug references. Senior class advisor Nicole Soucie said she didn’t have to reject any designs. She said the school helped students who couldn't afford the $50 fee to cover it.
Simon Yasuvich, who hopes to pursue theater in college, chose to make his spot the cover of a playbill, with a curtain and two drama masks wearing graduation caps.
“I've surprised myself today,” said Yasuvich, who’d almost finished the letters in playbill. “I'm not gonna lie, it turned out a lot better than I was expecting.”
Senior Jeremiah Davila loves the Dave Matthews Band and chose to paint the silhouette of the band’s fire dancer on his spot. His father, Joel Davila, helped him tidy up the edges. Dad tapped into his own artistic side.
“I used to be a vandal, a graffiti artist,” Joel Davila said. “That trickled over to canvases and it's come in handy right now.”
Jeremiah Davila is looking forward to using his personalized, guaranteed parking spot next week and to senior year.
“The people here are just really passionate about what we do,” he said. “Everybody gets along really well. Everybody kind of knows each other. And so that makes it really easy to come to school and be with my friends and people I know.”
